Facebook removes 1.5 million videos of the Christchurch attack

 Facebook has said it has removed 1.5 million videos of the shooting at the mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch from its platform. A total of 1.5 million videos were being removed by the social media platform, out of which 1.2 million were 'blocked' at upload which means they were not being seen by users.

Mia Garlick, spokeswoman for Facebook New Zealand, said in a statement that the company "continues to work round the clock to remove violating content from our site, using a combination of technology and people". Out of the 1.5 million videos of the massacre, 1.2 million were blocked on upload.

This comes after New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern questioned Facebook regarding live-streaming of the mosque attack. She said in a news conference that there were "further questions to be answered" by Facebook and other social media sites over their response to the incident.

She said in a statement that her country had done as much as they could do to "remove or seek to have removed some of the footage" circulated in the aftermath of the attack but that the removal of the violent content ultimately has been "up to those platforms".

The alleged shooter Brentan Tarrant's Facebook followers were the first to know about the horrific incident as he live-streamed his assault, from the time he started driving over to Al Noor Mosque to the moments when he first opened fire.

Long after his arrest along with other suspects, many others still continued to upload videos on YouTube and other online video platforms.

The New Zealand Government, on Sunday, informed various online platforms that sharing any version of the footage, even the edited, non-graphic versions is a violation of the law.

(Edited by: Nehal Solanki)

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