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Labour hits back at social media giants over Christchurch attack footage

Social media firms must be better at reacting quickly to take down live broadcasts, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said today.

A gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday, killing 50 Muslims. He live-streamed the attack on Facebook for 17 minutes, with footage of the event quickly spreading to other platforms such as Twitter.

“The social media platforms which were actually playing a video made by this person who is accused of murder… all over the world, that surely has got to stop,” Jeremy Corbyn told Sky News today.

“Those that control and own social media platforms should deal with it straight away and stop these things being broadcast. But that brings into the whole issue of the question of regulation of social media.”

Read more: Double New Zealand mosque shooting leaves 49 dead

His comments echoed those of deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who yesterday called tech giants "obscenely rich and unaccountable".

Facebook said this morning that it removed 1.5m videos globally of the New Zealand mosque attack in the first 24 hours after the incident, of which 1.2m were blocked upon being uploaded.

"We continue to work around the clock to remove violating content using a combination of technology and people," said Facebook's New Zealand spokesperson Mia Garland.

Read more: Facebook loses top tech execs after Zuckerberg leans in to privacy shift

She added that Facebook will also be removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she wants to discuss live streaming with Facebook.

The attacker is also said to have uploaded a “manifesto” denouncing immigrants as “invaders”, posted alongside the video via links to related social media accounts.

Home secretary Sajid Javid said yesterday that tech firms "have a responsibility not to do the terrorists' work for them".