Neil Finn, the frontman of Crowded House and one of New Zealand’s most esteemed singer-songwriters has announced that he will not partake in social media in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shooting.
On Friday 15th March, a lone gunman opened fire on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. The shooter, a white supremacist, was charged with murder the following day. Fifty people were killed in the shooting, making it New Zealand’s worst mass shooting. What is deeply unsettlingly about this attack is the gunman live streamed the attack across social media in a bid to maximise the number of witnesses to the attack across the globe.
Finn took to Twitter to share his condolences with the families of the victims.
Waking up to awful news from home, the full extent of the horror that unfolded in Christchurch. So sad for the victims and families, the whole community, all the good people of Christchurch. Our love and thoughts are with you .
— neil mullane finn (@NeilFinn) March 15, 2019
He also shared that as a result of this attack he has made the personal decision to longer take part in social media. He states that these platforms have enabled “the spread of hateful ideology”.
Out of respect for the grieving families of Christchurch and in consideration of their vast public tragedy I will no longer take part in social media . These platforms have enabled the spread of hateful ideology and I will not participate anymore.
— neil mullane finn (@NeilFinn) March 18, 2019
This is simply a personal response and not a call for a boycott or any such thing. Everyone makes their own version of the world happen on their screen. For now , I just want to play music . Thanks to all of you who have been following and supporting my random thoughts.
— neil mullane finn (@NeilFinn) March 18, 2019
Friday’s attack exemplified the global issue of extremist content being shared across social channels. The Facebook live stream of the shooting lasted 17 minutes. The original video was taken down, however, it was copied and shared across other platforms including YouTube and Twitter. The tech giants struggled to stop the videos and other white supremacist propaganda relating to the attack.
Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online. We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.
— New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) March 15, 2019
British home secretary Sajid Javid is urging the tech giants to take ownership and take action on stopping the violent extremism promoted on their platforms.
You really need to do more @YouTube @Google @facebook @Twitter to stop violent extremism being promoted on your platforms. Take some ownership. Enough is enough https://t.co/GTSgRufOow
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) March 15, 2019
