Christchurch shooting tragedy and response

In the following minutes, he was sent more links — this time to messaging boards — where he watched an anonymous community begin to spread the video, along with the man’s manifesto, as far and as wide as possible.

“As soon as it was posted there was a group of people who got to work making sure this material went viral,” says James, who asked that we didn’t publish his surname. “No matter what Facebook or Twitter did, they were never going to be able to get rid of it.”

Police and contractors raced to prepare the mosques in time for Islam’s sacred day of worship, which will include a memorial for the dead.

Two minutes of silence will follow the 1.30pm Call to Prayer, which will be broadcast on television and radio.

“We appreciate the support that the people of New Zealand have given to us at this time, and the opportunity to do this,” community leader and head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, Mustafa Farouk, said.

The attacks in Birmingham are being treated as linked. No motive has been established.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid says that the attacks are “deeply concerning.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Christoph Poelzl said an investigation by the BVT domestic intelligence agency is continuing but “a first result from this is that it can now be confirmed the person in question spent time in Austria.”

Earlier this week Hungarian authorities said the suspect visited Hungary as a tourist last November by train from Romania.

Austria’s far-right Identitarian Movement is close to parts of the nationalist Freedom Party, which controls the country’s Interior Ministry.

Erdogan broadcast the video at an election rally Thursday in Eskisehir, central Turkey, to criticise the Turkish opposition, which he claimed “did not see the big picture'” and threats against Turkey.

Erdogan has sparked outrage abroad by showing the videos at election rallies. He also triggered tensions with Australia for comments suggesting that Australians and New Zealanders with anti-Muslim views could return home in coffins.

A spokesman for Erdogan said the president’s words earlier this week were “taken out of context.”

A senior executive at the social media giant responded in a blog post to criticism that it didn’t act quickly enough to take down the gunman’s livestream video of his attack in Christchurch that left 50 people dead, allowing it to spread rapidly online.

Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said “this particular video did not trigger our automatic detection systems.”

One reason is because artificial intelligence systems are trained with large volumes of similar content, but in this case there was not enough because such attacks are rare.

Rosen said another challenge is in getting artificial intelligence to tell the difference between this and “visually similar, innocuous content,” such as live- streamed video games.

Professor Alexander Gillespie, professor of international law at the University of Waikato, said the gun law changes announced today “will start to address some of the loopholes in the law. It sounds like it’s a very strong step forward”.

Imam Gamal Fouda told the Associated Press that he is expecting 3000 to 4000 people at the prayer service, including many who have come from abroad.

Workers at the Al Noor mosque have been trying feverishly to repair the destruction, Fouda said.

“They will bury the carpet,” he said. “Because it is full of blood, and it’s contaminated.”

Fouda said that he expects the mosque to be ready to open again by next week and that some skilled workers had offered their services for free.