Shock waves rippled across the world last week Friday when a gunmen entered two Mosques in New Zealand and killed 50 people.

One of the gunmen streamed his attack live last week and the video of that attack has been disseminated on social media in the days following the attacks.

Now, however, New Zealand has issued a ban on the video. The ban comes after Chief Censor, David Shanks classified the video as objectionable. The video being banned means that sharing it could see the sharer facing a fine of $10 000 (NZD) or 14 years in prison.

This is a lot more complex than it seems however as YouTube has allowed edited video footage to remain on its platform. These videos appear to cut out just before the shooting begins.

“We have not classified any edited versions of the video, but we are working to support the DIA’s’ Digital Safety Unit who are providing advice to media organisations to support a lawful and principled approach to reporting on this matter,” Shanks added.

Of course, the court will make the final decision on whether to prosecute those who share the footage.

In addition, New Zealand Herald reports that Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has asked Facebook to share the names of users who have shared the aforementioned video with police.

“Facebook should be notifying the police of the account names of people who have shared this content,” Edwards said.

“It’s not a conflict I think because at the core there is a very egregious offence to the dignity and the rights to privacy of the victims.”

Facebook has been fighting uploads of the footage. The social network blocked 1.2 million videos at upload and 1.5 million videos in total during the 24 hours following the shooting. It’s not clear how many times the 300 000 videos that made it through to upload were shared or viewed though.

The social network also said that it had removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the shooter who streamed the event.

[Image – CC 0 Ichigo121212 from Pixabay]