The Christchurch Call to Action to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online

In the Christchurch Call to Action — named for the New Zealand city in which 51 members of the Muslim community were murdered in a live-streamed terrorist attack on 15 March 2019 — 10 Heads of State and Government and international organizations, as well as leaders of major tech companies, have committed to a set of collective actions that aim to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

The Christchurch Call to Action is an action plan that commits Governments, international organizations and Internet companies to a range of measures, including:

  • developing tools to prevent the upload of terrorist and violent extremist content;
  • countering the roots of violent extremism;
  • increasing transparency around the detection and removal of content;
  • ensuring that algorithms designed and used by companies do not direct users to violent extremist content, in order to make it less viral.

French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, along with Heads of State and Government and leaders of international organizations, tech companies and organizations, met in Paris on 15 May 2019 to adopt the Christchurch Call to Action, to take action against terrorism and violent extremism online.

“We can be proud of what we have started with the adoption of the Christchurch Call to Action. We’ve taken practical steps to try and stop what we experienced in Christchurch from happening again. “The March 15 attack was shocking in its use of social media as a tool in the act of terror and with the Christchurch Call to Action we have taken a unique approach to solving this problem,” Jacinda Ardern said.

New Zealand and France will take the Christchurch Call to Action to other countries and companies, and will advance its goals in international forums.

The Call to Action was adopted by France, New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Senegal, the UK, and the European Commission as well as Amazon, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Qwant, Twitter, and YouTube. Other countries that have adopted the Call to Action but were not at the meeting include Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

A full copy of the text and the list of supporters can be found at www.christchurchcall.com

Last updated on: 3 July 2019