Christchurch shootings: Facebook bosses 'morally bankrupt pathological liars', New Zealand privacy commissioner says

Tougher laws needed to force companies to take down violent content, urges John Edwards

New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has described Facebook bosses as “morally bankrupt pathological liars” in a forthright attack on the social media giant’s handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

John Edwards's comments came after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls to introduce a delay on its livestreaming service because it would interfere with the interactivity of videos.

“Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions...” Mr Edwards wrote on Twitter.

"[They] allow the live streaming of suicides, rapes, and murders, continue to host and publish the mosque attack video, allow advertisers to target ‘Jew haters’ and other hateful market segments, and refuse to accept any responsibility for any content or harm.

“They #dontgiveazuck," Mr Edwards added. He later deleted the tweets "because of the volume of toxic and misinformed traffic they prompted".

Facebook faced criticism after the Christchurch gunman used the platform to livestream some shootings, in which 50 people were killed and 50 more wounded on 15 March.

The privacy commissioner suggested his country could follow Australia by introducing laws which could lead to executives of social media companies being jailed over violent content on their platforms.

Mr Edwards said governments needed to come together and “force the platforms to find a solution” to violent material on livestreams.

"It may be that regulating, as Australia has done just in the last week, would be a good interim way to get their attention and say, 'Unless you can demonstrate the safety of these services, you simply can't use them'," he told Radio NZ.

Mr Zuckerberg has defended his company's livestreaming service, which he said is mainly used for positive reasons, but Mr Edwards described that defence as “disingenuous”.

“He can’t actually tell us, or won’t tell us, how many suicides are livestreamed, how many murders, how many sexual assaults,” the privacy commissioner added.

“In fact, I asked Facebook exactly that last week and they simply don’t have those figures or won’t give them to us.”

Facebook has also been criticised for its role in Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and its failure to stop the spread of hate speech in Myanmar, where minority Rohingya Muslims face persecution.

In response to Mr Edwards’s post, Facebook said it was taking steps to strengthen the rules for using Facebook Live, address hate on its platforms, and support New Zealand's community.

"We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safe," the statement added.

New Zealand’s justice minister Andrew Little said last week that his government will review the obligations of social media companies.

He said he had asked officials to look at the effectiveness of current hate speech laws and whether there were gaps that need to be filled.

Agencies contributed to this report