A Paris summit produced a broad but vague agreement to fight online terrorism that seemed most notable for the refusal of the U. S. to formally participate.
Following a daylong summit of tech companies and government officials, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French president Emmanuel Macron announced a broad but vague agreement to fight online terrorism that seemed most notable for the refusal of the U. S. to formally participate.
The accord was dubbed the “Christchurch Call,” in recognition of the New Zealand city that was the scene of a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 51 people. The shooter broadcast the attack live while Facebook, Google, and Twitter seemed nearly powerless to stop it spreading globally as people repeatedly uploaded copies.
“What happened in Christchurch was not just another terrorist attack,” Macron said. “It was someone taking the power of the internet and transforming into this machine for spreading crazy propaganda.”
The Call provides a framework for steps governments and companies separately, and together, agreed to take to ensure that terrorist content can be halted instantly.
“This agreement is unprecedented,” Ardern said. “Never before have these countries and these companies come together like this.
