The coverage of the New Zealand shooter killing 49 people at Mosques is being censored from certain platforms. Specifically, links to the 16 minute video are prohibited, seemingly globally; links or certain images of the shooter are prohibited, and images or links to the shooter’s manifesto are also prohibited. This has become evident as freelance journalist and former contributor to One Angry Gamer, Nick Monroe, has been getting hit with locks and censorship from Twitter, who has forced him to delete a number of tweets during his live coverage of the events on March 14th, 2019.
The coverage started on March 14th and carried through to March 15th. As Monroe was live-tweeting the coverage, he noted that places like Scribd began censoring links to the shooter’s manifesto.
It has come to my attention this morning that @Scribd has removed the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto that I posted yesterday.
Under…. DMCA?
Does nobody give a FUCK about the public interest anymore?
Has censorship in our society come this far?https://t.co/99vR3vInXs pic.twitter.com/0JWJi0BZS5— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
This was followed up with a tweet explaining that New Zealand internet service providers have apparently been instructed to block New Zealanders from accessing specific sites that hosted the shooter’s manifesto and his live-feed footage of the massacre.
According to @eldarmark , the censorship of New Zealand shooter content is being taken to an EXTREME length https://t.co/XIYSFNBh8i pic.twitter.com/SkoNhWgPJu
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
As Monroe was sharing photos and information about the shooter, detailing his background, his employment, his travel habits, and his manifesto, Twitter’s Trust & Safety council began immediately locking and restricting Monroe’s account in real-time, coercing him to delete certain tweets in order to unlock his account.
OH COME ON.
TWITTER LOCKED MY ACCOUNT AGAIN.@jack THAT WAS A PICTURE
A PICTURE
NOT A VIDEO
WHY DID TWITTER MAKE ME TAKE A PICTURE DOWN pic.twitter.com/z5a65qZM4O
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
GOT TO TYPE THIS FAST BEFORE THEY LOCK MY ACCOUNT AGAIN
TWITTER MADE ME REMOVE 8 TWEETS FROM MY NEW ZEALAND SHOOTER THREAD
I CANT EVEN TALK ABOUT IT pic.twitter.com/Utm9qZJVi8
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
AND AGAIN pic.twitter.com/XDaQHhpaN4
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
Monroe also pointed out that the coverage he was providing in real-time about the shooter and his background actually managed to make onto live television on WRALTV. Monroe provided a screenshot of the live coverage from the news station that was reading the manifesto from Monroe’s account on live television. A tweet that Twitter had Monroe to delete.
Reminder that my thread was on the NEWS
And the tweet ON SCREEN THERE, RIGHT THERE, has been REMOVED @jack I want to know what on earth your public interest clause covers and doesn’t cover pic.twitter.com/xFJH6AsZH4
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
According to another tweet, it was suspected that the New Zealand police were requesting takedowns of photographs, images, video footage, or links to the manifesto and the shooting itself.
My mind is racing to try and make sense of what’s going on. The only thing I can think of causing this much of an egregious overstep of censorship is New Zealand police pic.twitter.com/Zobe9Ni32n
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
Various users on One Angry Gamer who were sharing the links also noted that services such as Liveleak.com and Bitchute.com were also removing the videos uploaded of the shooting, this is despite the fact that footage of terrorist beheadings and other killings are still available for viewing on places like Liveleak.com.
Monroe also criticized Twitter for not immediately suspending a terrorist account that threatened the Prime Minister of New Zealand, which initially stated that “Revenge is coming”.
Instead of addressing the potential incitement of a religious race war, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that they would be focusing on New Zealand gun laws.
“The offender was in possession of a gun licence … I can tell you one thing right now – our gun laws will change.” — @jacindaardern pic.twitter.com/xwO5Vxf2Sy
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019
If you’re unable to view the footage Ardern stated…
“I want to speak specifically about the firearms used in this terrorist act. I’m advised that there were five guns used by the primary perpetrator. There were two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. The offender was in possession of a gun license. I’m advised that this was acquired in November of 2017. Illegal action firearm was also found.
”While work has been done leading to the chain of events to both the holding of this gun license and the possession of these weapons, I can you one thing right now: our gun laws will change. There have been attempts to change our laws in 2005, 2012, and after an inquiry, in 2017. Now is the time for change.”
Part of the manifesto from the shooter was actually hoping that politicians like Ardern would respond with more restrictive gun measures, as he also hoped that it would have a bleed-over effect on America’s gun laws as well. The purpose of the shooting was to incite the Left-wing media to create hysteria and push people into engaging in a race war.
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