This was about the rise of white supremacy online and the power of social media in spreading that message.Īt first glance, the shooter’s “manifesto” seems to recall those of previous white nationalist killers such as Anders Breivik, a far-right terrorist who committed the 2011 Norway attacks. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said after the shootings that “many of those who will have been directly affected” were likely migrants or refugees.īut this attack was about far more than that influx in Christchurch. The exodus was largely replenished by migrants, many hired to help rebuild the city.
The city’s population fell sharply after that event. The attacks took place in the apparently unlikely location of Christchurch, New Zealand, still struggling to recover after a devastating earthquake that brought down thousands of buildings and killed nearly 200 people in 2011. Posts on Twitter also appeared to herald the attack.įacebook, YouTube and Twitter struggle to deal with New Zealand shooting videoįacebook eventually took down the page and Twitter deleted the alleged perpetrator’s profile but not before the video had spread like wildfire across social media. It linked out to an 87-page manifesto filled with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim ideas, and directed users to a Facebook page that hosted the live stream.
Before it took place, a post on the anonymous message board 8chan – a particularly lawless forum that often features racist and extremist posts – seemed to preview the horror. In fact, the entire attack seemed orchestrated for the social media age. In a sickening angle to an already horrific story, it was live-streamed online. It seems that the video was filmed by a perpetrator of the mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, in which dozens of people were killed and injured.
The video, which has not been verified by CNN, appears to show an unseen attacker opening fire on worshippers in a mosque, as if they were targets in a game. But it soon becomes terrifyingly obvious that what is being filmed here is not a work of fiction. The footage is grainy and has a video-game aesthetic.
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