The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has lined up several meetings with the executives from social media companies to discuss the Christchurch Call, a pledge to eliminate terrorist presence online.
During her recent visit to New York, Ardern’s efforts to meet with the top executives of the social media companies had made the rounds in her home country.
While the opposition leader Simon Bridges expressed his contempt over the pledge by calling it a “talkfest,” the New Zealand prime minister, however, seems to pay no heed as she plans to extensively focus on the Christchurch Call at the United Nations next week.
In a recent interview with RNZ, Ardern said that she would not only focus on Christchurch Call, but would also pursue investment and trade opportunities to promote global-level climate action.
“New Zealand has always been a country that when it sees a need and a gap, it tries to fill it. And that’s never at the expense of our other interests,” said the New Zealand prime minister in response to criticism about the extended focus on Christchurch call.
Ardern highlighted the fact that tech and social media companies never worked with their competitors and that they must do so to prevent online terrorism. It is revealed that Ardern will hold one-on-one meetings with several executives from big tech in Paris.
“These are tech companies that, by and large, don’t work together with their competitors. And what we’re asking is for them to start working together, because this video was not shared just on one platform,” said the New Zealand prime minister, referring to Christchurch shooting video that spurred a wave of censorship in the country that raised eyebrows of digital rights groups.
Moreover, it was also revealed that she was expected to hold similar one-on-one meetings with Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and Microsoft President Brad Smith.
In response to the aforementioned efforts with regards to Christchurch Call, Facebook had announced new changes that would now direct New Zealanders to “anti-hate” websites if they happen to search for white-supremacy content.
Nonetheless, New Zealand’s national opposition party leader Bridges expressed skepticism and said that such anti-terrorism movements can only gain momentum when the United States administration supports it. He further pointed out that the United States hasn’t supported their Christchurch Call, undermining the movement as a whole.
