The country’s main internet service providers (ISP), Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees, are blocking any website which has footage of the Friday 15 March Christchurch mosque shootings.
The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) Chief Executive, Geoff Thorn, said that this is an unprecedented move by the telecommunications industry, but one that they all agree is necessary.
“The industry is working together to ensure this harmful content can’t be viewed by New Zealanders,” said Thorn.
“The gunman clearly wanted his actions to be seen, but we do not believe that this is desirable and are doing what we can to prevent this from happening as much as possible.”
The ISPs are sharing their knowledge with each other, and across the industry, to ensure each can block sites as soon as they are found to contain the video footage.
A number of websites have so far been blacklisted, with requests made for the website to remove the footage.
“There is the risk that some sites that have legitimate content could have been mistakenly blacklisted, but this will be rectified as soon as possible,” said Thorn.
“The industry has a history of cooperating and putting competitive behaviour to one side for the benefit of New Zealanders, of which this is another good example.”
