Facebook Still Working to Remove All Videos of New Zealand Terrorist Attack
"We will continue working directly with New Zealand Police as their response and investigation continues,” Mia Garlick of Facebook New Zealand said in a statement Sunday.
Garlick said that the company is currently working to remove even edited versions of the original video which do not contain graphic content, "Out of respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities."
In the 24 hours following the mass shooting, which left 50 people dead, Facebook removed 1.5 million videos of the attack, of which 1.2 million were blocked at upload, the company said.
Facebook's most recent comments follow criticism of the platform after the shooter not only livestreamed the 17 graphic minutes of his rampage, using a camera mounted on his helmet, but also had posted a 74-page white supremacist manifesto on Facebook.
Earlier Sunday, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference that there were "further questions to be answered" by Facebook and other social media platforms.
"We did as much as we could to remove or seek to have removed some of the footage that was being circulated in the aftermath of this terrorist attack. Ultimately, though, it has been up to those platforms to facilitate their removal and support their removal," she said.
The attack came during Friday prayers when the Al Noor Mosque and the nearby Linwood Mosque were filled with hundreds of worshippers. The victims of Friday's shooting included immigrants from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia.