Christchurch Mosque Shooting

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#2203060 21-Mar-2019 20:40

Canterbury Police:

The Linwood Ave mosque is expected to be released back to the community tonight, in time for Friday prayers.

Police have finished their work at the site, however will continue to have a presence there as reassurance in coming days.

The Deans Ave site will be released to the community tomorrow, and there are plans in place to allow Friday prayers to go ahead there.

We thank the community for their understanding during this time.

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#2203061 21-Mar-2019 20:43

From Facebook:

We continue to keep the people, families and communities affected by the tragedy in New Zealand in our hearts. Since the attack, we have been working directly with the New Zealand Police to respond to the attack and support their investigation. In addition, people are looking to understand how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the terrorist attack, and we wanted to provide additional information from our review into how our products were used and how we can improve going forward.

Timeline

As we posted earlier this week, we removed the attacker’s video within minutes of the New Zealand Polices’ outreach to us, and in the aftermath, we have people working on the ground with authorities. We will continue to support them in every way we can. In light of the active investigation, police have asked us not to share certain details. At present we are able to provide the information below:

The video was viewed fewer than 200 times during the live broadcast.
No users reported the video during the live broadcast.
Including the views during the live broadcast, the video was viewed about 4,000 times in total before being removed from Facebook.
Before we were alerted to the video, a user on 8chan posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site.
The first user report on the original video came in 29 minutes after the video started, and 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended.
In the first 24 hours, we removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, which were therefore prevented from being seen on our services. Approximately 300,000 additional copies were removed after they were posted.
Safety on Facebook Live

We recognize that the immediacy of Facebook Live brings unique challenges, and in the past few years we’ve focused on enabling our review team to get to the most important videos faster. We use artificial intelligence to detect and prioritize videos that are likely to contain suicidal or harmful acts, we improved the context we provide reviewers so that they can make the most informed decisions and we built systems to help us quickly contact first responders to get help on the ground. We continue to focus on the tools, technology and policies to keep people safe on Live.

Artificial Intelligence

Many people have asked why artificial intelligence (AI) didn’t detect the video from last week’s attack automatically. AI has made massive progress over the years and in many areas, which has enabled us to proactively detect the vast majority of the content we remove. But it’s not perfect.

AI systems are based on “training data,” which means you need many thousands of examples of content in order to train a system that can detect certain types of text, imagery or video. This approach has worked very well for areas such as nudity, terrorist propaganda and also graphic violence where there is a large number of examples we can use to train our systems. However, this particular video did not trigger our automatic detection systems. To achieve that we will need to provide our systems with large volumes of data of this specific kind of content, something which is difficult as these events are thankfully rare. Another challenge is to automatically discern this content from visually similar, innocuous content – for example if thousands of videos from live-streamed video games are flagged by our systems, our reviewers could miss the important real-world videos where we could alert first responders to get help on the ground.

AI is an incredibly important part of our fight against terrorist content on our platforms, and while its effectiveness continues to improve, it is never going to be perfect. People will continue to be part of the equation, whether it’s the people on our team who review content, or people who use our services and report content to us. That’s why last year we more than doubled the number of people working on safety and security to over 30,000 people, including about 15,000 content reviewers, and why we encourage people to report content that they find disturbing.

Reporting

During the entire live broadcast, we did not get a single user report. This matters because reports we get while a video is broadcasting live are prioritized for accelerated review. We do this because when a video is still live, if there is real-world harm we have a better chance to alert first responders and try to get help on the ground.

Last year, we expanded this acceleration logic to also cover videos that were very recently live, in the past few hours. Given our focus on suicide prevention, to date we applied this acceleration when a recently live video is reported for suicide.

In Friday’s case, the first user report came in 29 minutes after the broadcast began, 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended. In this report, and a number of subsequent reports, the video was reported for reasons other than suicide and as such it was handled according to different procedures. As a learning from this, we are re-examining our reporting logic and experiences for both live and recently live videos in order to expand the categories that would get to accelerated review.

Circulation of the Video

The video itself received fewer than 200 views when it was live, and was viewed about 4,000 times before being removed from Facebook. During this time, one or more users captured the video and began to circulate it. At least one of these was a user on 8chan, who posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site and we believe that from there it started circulating more broadly. Forensic identifiers on many of the videos later circulated, such as a bookmarks toolbar visible in a screen recording, match the content posted to 8chan.

This isn’t the first time violent, graphic videos, whether live streamed or not, have gone viral on various online platforms. Similar to those previous instances, we believe the broad circulation was a result of a number of different factors:

There has been coordination by bad actors to distribute copies of the video to as many people as possible through social networks, video sharing sites, file sharing sites and more.
Multiple media channels, including TV news channels and online websites, broadcast the video. We recognize there is a difficult balance to strike in covering a tragedy like this while not providing bad actors additional amplification for their message of hate.
Individuals around the world then re-shared copies they got through many different apps and services, for example filming the broadcasts on TV, capturing videos from websites, filming computer screens with their phones, or just re-sharing a clip they received.

People shared this video for a variety of reasons. Some intended to promote the killer’s actions, others were curious, and others actually intended to highlight and denounce the violence. Distribution was further propelled by broad reporting of the existence of a video, which may have prompted people to seek it out and to then share it further with their friends.

Blocking the Video

Immediately after the attack, we designated this as a terror attack, meaning that any praise, support, or representation violates our Community Standards and is not permitted on Facebook. Given the severe nature of the video, we prohibited its distribution even if shared to raise awareness, or only a segment shared as part of a news report.

In the first 24 hours, we removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, which were therefore prevented from being seen on our services. Approximately 300,000 additional copies were removed after they were posted.

We’ve been asked why our image and video matching technology, which has been so effective at preventing the spread of propaganda from terrorist organizations, did not catch those additional copies. What challenged our approach was the proliferation of many different variants of the video, driven by the broad and diverse ways in which people shared it:

Firstly, we saw a core community of bad actors working together to continually re-upload edited versions of this video in ways designed to defeat our detection.

Secondly, a broader set of people distributed the video and unintentionally made it harder to match copies. Some people may have seen the video on a computer or TV, filmed that with a phone and sent it to a friend. Still others may have watched the video on their computer, recorded their screen and passed that on. Websites and pages, eager to get attention from people seeking out the video, re-cut and re-recorded the video into various formats.

In total, we found and blocked over 800 visually-distinct variants of the video that were circulating. This is different from official terrorist propaganda from organizations such as ISIS – which while distributed to a hard core set of followers, is not rebroadcast by mainstream media organizations and is not re-shared widely by individuals.

We’re learning to better understand techniques which would work for cases like this with many variants of an original video. For example, as part of our efforts we employed audio matching technology to detect videos which had visually changed beyond our systems’ ability to recognize automatically but which had the same soundtrack.

Next Steps

Our greatest priorities right now are to support the New Zealand Police in every way we can, and to continue to understand how our systems and other online platforms were used as part of these events so that we can identify the most effective policy and technical steps. This includes:

Most importantly, improving our matching technology so that we can stop the spread of viral videos of this nature, regardless of how they were originally produced. For example, as part of our response last Friday, we applied experimental audio-based technology which we had been building to identify variants of the video.
Secondly, reacting faster to this kind of content on a live streamed video. This includes exploring whether and how AI can be used for these cases, and how to get to user reports faster. Some have asked whether we should add a time delay to Facebook Live, similar to the broadcast delay sometimes used by TV stations. There are millions of Live broadcasts daily, which means a delay would not help address the problem due to the sheer number of videos. More importantly, given the importance of user reports, adding a delay would only further slow down videos getting reported, reviewed and first responders being alerted to provide help on the ground.
Third, continuing to combat hate speech of all kinds on our platform. Our community standards prohibit terrorist and hate groups of all kinds. This includes more than 200 white supremacist organizations globally, whose content we are removing through proactive detection technology.
Fourth, expanding our industry collaboration through the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). We are experimenting with sharing URLs systematically rather than just content hashes, are working to address the range of terrorists and violent extremists operating online, and intend to refine and improve our ability to collaborate in a crisis.
What happened in New Zealand was horrific. Our hearts are with the victims, families and communities affected by this horrible attack.

We’ll continue to provide updates as we learn more.

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#2203062 21-Mar-2019 20:43

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#2203064 21-Mar-2019 20:44

JaseNZ:

People and the media are condemning the social media aspect of spreading it but the main stream media is just as bad in my books. This event is being covered in every conceivable way, the news takes up around 80% of it followed by an in other news couple of stories in the last 10 minutes.

The main stream media is fueling it just as much and is exactly what this guy wanted, I cannot even begin to imagine how any of the victims and family must be feeling reliving it every night on the news and through out the day.

I am not saying don't report on it but dial it down on the constant main stream media attention on it.

I cant agree. sorry

It hurts. The deviant cant see all this , he isn't getting any satisfaction. I know Muslims, I am in ChCh, I dont know any direct victims or direct familes, but it hurts. I feel sad, I feel embarrassed.

When the EQ's happened here it was hard. Compared to others, it wasn't hard for me. I helped more than needed help. After a while it also became embarrassing. yes its not great here but we dont need news 24/7 on the poor ChCh people (although some were doing it real hard) Then there was resentment. Not ChCh again...

This is not ChCh EQ's its super hard on Muslims. If you watched the news, and I find that quite hard, you will find many speak like Kiwi's, no accent. A surgeon here does his job, then breaks down, after his job. He is Muslim. That's tough to watch. Last night we saw a few that find it hard living here as its so racist. Wow, that does hurt. None of us are so mis aligned that we dont know racism is alive and well here, we just bury our heads. But we know.

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#2203067 21-Mar-2019 20:48

PM Statement on Christchurch mosques terror attack - 21 March

On 15 March the nation witnessed a terrorist attack that demonstrated the weakness of New Zealand's gun laws.

New Zealand's regulation of arms primarily dates back to 1983. Sadly since that time the most substantive changes to our laws came following the Aramoana shootings.

Those changes however did not go far enough. Successive attempts have been made and failed to change our laws since then.

Those attempts were in 1999, 2005, 2012, and more recently through a select committee inquiry in early 2017. And still none of the changes that have been made in the past dealt with one of the most glaring issues we have that sets New Zealand apart from many other nations. The availability of military style semi-automatic weapons.

The attacker on 15 March took a significant number of lives using primarily two guns. They were assault rifles and they were purchased legally on an A-Category gun licence. The standard license held by gun owners in New Zealand.

The capacity of these assault rifles was then enhanced using 30–plus-round magazines, essentially turning them into military style semi-automatic weapons. While the modification of these guns was illegal, it was done easily through a simple online purchase. The guns used in this terrorist attack had important distinguishing features. First, their capacity and also their delivery. They had the power to shoot continuously but they also had large capacity magazines.

I absolutely believe there will be a common view amongst New Zealanders, those who use guns for legitimate purposes, and those who have never touched one that he time for the mass and easy availability of these weapons must end. And today they will.

Today I'm announcing that New Zealand will ban all military style semi-automatic weapons. We will also ban all assault rifles. We will ban all high capacity magazines. We will ban all parts with the ability to convert semi-automatic or any other type of firearm into a military style semi-automatic weapon. We will ban parts that cause a firearm to generate semi-automatic, automatic, or close to automatic gunfire. In short, every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned in this country.

These changes will require legislation. That legislation has now been drafted and will be introduced under urgency. A shortened select committee process will apply. So I encourage all those who wish to submit to start now. My expectation is that the law will be in place by the end of the next two-week sitting session, which is by the 11th of April.

As a Government, however, we did not wish to allow a situation where irresponsible dealers continue to sell weapons that will be banned within a few weeks. That is why we have taken an interim measure. As at 3:00 pm today an order in council took effect. These changes to our regulations will ensure virtually all of the weapons I have announced has been banned will be categorized as weapons that require an E-Class endorsement.

The effect of this will mean that no one will be able to buy these weapons without a permit to procure from the police. I can assure people that there is no point in applying for such a permit. This is an interim measure to ensure the trade of these weapons ceases from 3 p.m. today.

As a Government we acknowledge that there will be gun owners who have legitimately purchased weapons we have now moved to ban. Some, for instance, will use them for large scale culling such as DOC. We will, as a Cabinet, work through legalised exemptions for these purposes but they will be tightly regulated. For others, these guns will now come out of circulation.

I acknowledge and thank those retailers who have voluntarily ceased to sell military style semi-automatic and assault rifles. You will have seen the collective issues we face as a country and reacted swiftly and I thank you for that. For other dealers, sales should essentially now cease. My expectation is that these weapons will be returned to your suppliers and never enter into the New Zealand market again.

For current owners of the weapons we have moved to ban, I acknowledge that many of you will have acted within the law. In recognition of that and to incentivise their return, we will be establishing a buy-back scheme. The details of the scheme are being developed in parallel to the drafting of the legislation to enforce the ban.

In the meantime we are asking all current holders of military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles to visit www.police.govt.nz. There they will find details of the weapons included in the ban, and the next 48 hours a form will be available on the site that we are asking these gun owners to complete, identifying what banned guns they hold. The police will then arrange for these weapons to be handed over and eventually destroyed. Details of the weapons handed back by owners that are covered by the ban will also be taken to ensure that fair and reasonable compensation is paid once the buy-back is in place.

If owners are unable to complete the online form, they are able to contact the police on the phone to arrange the handover of these now banned guns. I do want to emphasise: to manage the flow of information to the police, online is the best way to arrange the return of your weapons. Do not arrive at the police station unannounced with these weapons in your possession.

As the legislation has developed, we will determine the time available for the return of military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles and the duration of the buyback scheme. I can assure people that there will be time for the returns to be made and that they will not be criminalised overnight. After a reasonable period for returns those who continue to possess these guns will be in contravention of the law.

Currently the penalties for this range from fines of up to $4,000 and or three years in prison. The draft legislation will look to increase these penalties. I want to acknowledge that the weapons available in New Zealand are only part of the problem and loopholes with our current law continue to exist.

On Monday, Cabinet will receive and consider further amendments to our gun laws. These proposals will, however, go through a more fulsome process. But be assured, this is just the beginning of the work we need to do.

Finally, I want to repeat a message I have consistently shared since announcing our laws would change. We do have guns in New Zealand that are used for legitimate purposes by responsible owners every single day and that includes our rural community They manage pests. They use for animal welfare and also for recreation. I've been steadfast in my belief that the vast majority of these owners will support what we are doing here today because it's about all of us. It's in the national interest and it's about safety. I will work hard to retain that support as we work on the remaining tranches of reform that we must make to prevent an act of terror happening in our country ever again. I’ll now hand over to the Minister of Police.

MINISTER OF POLICE HON STUART NASH: Thank you Prime Minister. Two hours ago, I was amongst a group of Ministers who signed off on the order which tightens the law on the sale of assault rifles. It is an interim step until legislation can be introduced and passed to ban all military style semi-automatics. These measures will make a real difference to enable New Zealand to become a safer place.

As the Prime Minister has already said, the time to act is now. The order which is now in effect will discourage the potential stockpiling of these assault rifles and encourage people to continue to surrender their firearms. Dozens of farm-owners have come forward so far and I expect more will do so. Police are gearing up to enable these weapons to be taken out of circulation. They'll be supported by the New Zealand Defence Force to enable safe storage, transport, and destruction of assault rifles and MSSAs. The Prime Minister has also alluded to - police are definitely encouraging firearms owners to go to the police website and use the online form to arrange to hand over the MSSAs assault rifles. Finally, I want to remind that it is a privilege and not a right to own a firearm in New Zealand. We know that there are many gun owners with legitimate reasons for owning firearms especially in our rural and provincial communities. This work is not directed at them. Our focus is on ensuring the immediate safety and peace of mind of our communities.

This is just the announcement. Do not discuss the gun laws here.

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#2203068 21-Mar-2019 20:50

jonathan18:

It's good to see National putting aside partisanship and supporting the announced ban. It could have been quite ugly otherwise, though it'll be interesting to see where NZF go with this. If all parties support it it'll be harder for hard-arse interest groups (including NRA involvement) to stick their oar in.

The ban came into effect at 3pm today, so will put an end to those idiots who rushed out and purchased in the meantime.

I really don't get this behaviour - if something you've just bought ends up being banned you'll have two choices: follow the law and hand it in as part of the buy-back, or break the law and keep it but risk getting in trouble at a later date.

I also wonder if, over this last week (or prior), gun shops have been requesting or requiring the names/addresses of purchasers of such guns and accessories? They'll have them for online orders, for sure. If so, I wonder if the police will have access to this info so they've got at least some info on who should be handing things in.

If a ban is possibly impending who would buy a $2500 product ??? Tipple mentioned the other day that there is the opposite. News shows people handing back guns to the Police. So much false news. Its super emotive, the media needs to step up.

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#2203072 21-Mar-2019 20:52

I asked not to discuss the gun law change in this thread @tdgeek.

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#2203073 21-Mar-2019 20:53

Nationwide reflection for victims of Christchurch terror attack announced

A nationwide reflection for those killed in the Christchurch terror attack will be held tomorrow, Friday 22 March, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

The Muslim Call to Prayer at 1.30pm will be followed by a two-minute silence at 1.32pm, at Hagley Park, opposite the Al Noor Mosque in Deans Ave, Christchurch. This will be broadcast widely with New Zealanders encouraged to join in wherever they may be.

“I know many New Zealanders wish to mark the week that has passed since the terrorist attack and to support the Muslim community as they return to mosques,” Jacinda Ardern said.

“How we choose to reflect during the silence will be different for each of us. Everyone should do what feels right for them, wherever they are – at home, at work, at school.

“Planning is also continuing for a National Memorial Service, which will be held later next week.

“While it will be in Christchurch, we’re looking at how we can involve the rest of New Zealand.

“I appreciate there is significant interest in this Service from throughout New Zealand and internationally, and we will continue to work closely with the local Muslim community, Ngāi Tahu, FIANZ and Christchurch City Council to provide more information as soon as we can.

“As a nation, as one, we will pay our respects to those who died in Christchurch,” Jacinda Ardern said.

1.15pm Everyone to be in position
1.30pm Muslim Call to Prayer
1.32pm Two-minute silence to be observed
1.34pm Prayers begin, not to be interrupted
2.00pm PM departs

Where: Hagley Park, Christchurch, opposite Al Noor Mosque in Deans Ave, Christchurch.

Please note: Media will be directed to broadcast from designated locations for images and sound only. The PM will not hold a press conference.

Protocol note: Preference for women to wear trousers and to cover arms and hair with a scarf or hat. When the Call to Prayer begins, the public may remain standing. All cell phones are to be put on silent.

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#2203074 21-Mar-2019 20:53

allio:

networkn:

I support the ban but not the cost. $100M is MASSIVE money and honestly, I hope they present some cost break downs and quickly.

What is that, $50 per taxpayer, once-off, to permanently rid the country of deadly assault weapons? I will never be more glad for my tax dollars to be spent on something.

I understand being frustrated at the amount of money, but I suggest focusing that frustration towards the kiwis who apparently bought and stockpiled 30,000+ assault weapons which now need to be forcibly nationalised.

I agree, I support the ban I dont support that banning semis will save the problem, and I dont support excluding small calibre rifles from the ban. I feel there is a knee jerk with detail but not from the intention.

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#2203075 21-Mar-2019 20:54

@tdgeek gets a week in the cooler for ignoring repeated requests to not discuss the gun law changes in this thread.

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#2203077 21-Mar-2019 20:59

It was nice after the quakes to see so many cars pull over and people shut up over the first observed moment.

I was in the airport for the following year and it was announced and went spooky silent.

That is other than the tourists wandering among the people standing still chatting wondering what was going on :/ super awkward.

Be nice gesture to be a part of it tomorrow if timeframe for my remote job allows. Be certainly surprised if there was absolutely no mobiles filming or going off in this day of age.

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#2203079 21-Mar-2019 21:04

Auckland school bans hijab because is not part of uniform code - days after Christchurch attack.

If these people aren't the worst room readers in the world...

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#2203091 21-Mar-2019 21:48

freitasm:
Auckland school bans hijab because is not part of uniform code - days after Christchurch attack.

If these people aren't the worst room readers in the world...

I get the "baaa this page doesn't exist" sheep. It appears they have removed the story.