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New Zealand Mobile Carriers Block 8chan, 4chan, and LiveLeak
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New Zealand Mobile Carriers Block 8chan, 4chan, and LiveLeak
Following the Friday mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, multiple internet service providers (ISP) in the country have blocked access to websites that distribute gruesome content from the incident.
[...] At least three internet companies operating in New Zealand have made this decision voluntarily and enforce it on a temporary basis against sites that still publish the sensitive materials. Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ, and Vocus NZ agreed to work together to identify and block access at DNS level to such online locations. 8chan and 4chan are currently unavailable to New Zealanders trying to load them through a connection from the three telcos. At the moment, visitors trying to get to these forums through Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ and Vocus NZ see the message "The URL has been blocked for security reasons."
Some users reported that LiveLeak video-sharing platform was also blocked in the region, along with other websites, including file-sharing service Mega. The block is not permanent, though. As soon as the horrific content from the Christchurch incident originating from the terrorists is removed, access to the website is reestablished.
The Dark Night of Censorship falls on New Zealand
Everybody keeps waiting for the dystopia to arrive, well wait no more for it has made an appearance in New Zealand. Zero Hedge reports that New Zealand is dropping the hammer on all discussion about the recent shooting. The list is growing and will almost certainly be larger by the time this story goes live.
Current banned sites seem to be: Dissenter.com (the new service from Gab yet gab.com is still reported as available.... for now), "all" of the "chans" are banned, and Zerohedge itself is now banned.
Subscribers who ask their ISP are reporting being told sites will stay banned until they become "censorship compliant." Sites not banned: Facebook.com, which live streamed the attack, and Twitter.com, which hosted the original link to the shooter's "manifesto." Guess they are "censorship compliant."
Suppression of Christchurch shooting video
After Christchurch, Reddit bans communities infamous for sharing graphic videos of death
In the aftermath of the tragic mosque massacre that claimed 49 lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, tech companies scrambled to purge their platforms of promotional materials that the shooter left behind. As most of the internet is now unfortunately aware, the event was broadcast live on Facebook, making it one of the most horrific incidents of violence to spread through online communities in realtime.
As Twitter users cautioned others from sharing the extraordinarily graphic video, some Reddit users actively sought the video and knew exactly where to look. The infamous subreddit r/watchpeopledie was quarantined (making it unsearchable) in September 2018 but until today remained active for anyone to visit directly. The subreddit has a long history of sharing extremely graphic videos following tragic events and acts of violence, like the 2018 murder of two female tourists in Morocco.
[...] The subreddit remained active until some time late Friday morning Pacific Time, when Reddit banned the controversial community.
How 'hashing' could stop violent videos from spreading
Some experts say tech companies should more broadly adopt a technology they're already using to combat child pornography and copyright violations to more quickly stop the spread of these types of videos.
[...] Facebook (FB) says it took down the livestream "quickly," but hours later, re-uploads of it were still circulating on the site. Twitter suspended the original account in question and is working to remove other versions on the platform. YouTube said it is utilizing "technology and human resources" to remove content that violates their policies.
Technologists say digital hashing, which has existed for more than a decade, could be better used to prevent the re-upload of videos. Hashing wouldn't have been able to catch the original live video of the attacks, but it could stop re-uploaded copies from spreading.
Social media platforms were used like lethal weapons in New Zealand. That must change now.
Editorial judgment, often flawed, is not only possible. It's necessary.
The scale and speed of the digital world obviously complicates that immensely. But saying, in essence, "we can't help it" and "that's not our job" are not acceptable answers.
Friday's massacre should force the major platforms — which are really media companies, though they don't want to admit it — to get serious.
After New Zealand Attacks, Muslim-Americans Call For Action Against Rising Bigotry
"The New Zealand shooter was able to livestream a 17-minute video of his murderous rampage that continues to spread like wildfire online. This is flatly unacceptable. Tech companies must take all steps possible to prevent something like this from happening again," Khera said.
Previously: 49 Dead in Christchurch, New Zealand Terror Attack
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3 Original Submission #4
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday March 17 2019, @04:20PM (5 children)
Guy looks smart but can't spell "effect". Factoid noted.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jmorris on Sunday March 17 2019, @10:08PM (1 child)
That isn't the only problem with his manifesto. It looks fake. It reads like a researcher was tasked with collecting a "greatest hits" from the chans. It is incoherent though because the author couldn't really process the ideas, yet we are expected to believe this guy wrote it and was so dedicated he threw his own life away over it?
And yeah, the idea to agitate a race war up or get the gun banners to overreach and get the gun nuts to start shooting aren't new or original. Hell, inciting a race was wasn't a new idea when Charlie Manson gave it a go.
Then there is what I'm calling the "big tell" that a professional researcher put it together, the footnoting of "Wrath of the Awakened Saxon" as not being original Kipling. If you have wandered the dank corners of the Internet long you have seen that thing a few hundred times. Nobody has ever footnoted it, they either post it unattributed or incorrectly pass it off as Kipling. So the shooter is either the King of the Spergs or a pro did this book. A pro just wouldn't be able to help themselves, they would have to footnote it as not really being Kipling.
Then there is the huge elephant in the room notable for the absence, anyone who read the thing should have noticed it. But again, a pro wouldn't be able to bring them self to "go there" even on a paid commission writing as an "ebil Nazi"... who self identified as a "Eco Fascist" but that isn't the only misdirection in there. Parts of it are pure shitpoasting to troll the world.
Then we learn the shooter has been pretty much everywhere, including North Korea. WTF? if everybody is touring the place why do we refer to it as the "Hermit Kingdom? Eh? Then late last year he was in Pakistan? This is a guy so worked up about Muslims he just has to go on a murder spree?
Something ain't right, pieces of this story still missing. As usual.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 17 2019, @10:55PM
He's a trollerist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 18 2019, @02:15AM (2 children)
Guy looks smart but can't look up the definition of the word 'affect'. Noted.
ObURL: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/affect [oxforddictionaries.com]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday March 18 2019, @01:37PM (1 child)
You are right, I am quite familiar with the VERB affect, but affect as a noun is used quite rarely and I didn't even think he might have meant that, which brings us back to what another commenter said. Manifesto looks like coming from a different background than the chan dweller terrorist.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 18 2019, @03:46PM
https://xkcd.com/326/ [xkcd.com]