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Jacinda Ardern on the Christchurch Call: How New Zealand led a movement
During a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed that when she reached for her phone to share the heartbreaking news of the Christchurch massacre, she found a horrifying surprise: A livestream of the massacre served to her on a social media platform.
For a period of 24 hours, copies of the footage were uploaded to YouTube as often as once per second, spreading the 17-minute massacre faster than tech companies could shut it down.
The experience drives her work at the Christchurch Call, combating online extremism and working with government and civil society to build guardrails against the exploitation of technology by extremists, , she explained during a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Watch the full Global Stage Livestream conversation here: Hearing the Christchurch Call
Hearing the Christchurch Call
After a terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, was live-streamed on the internet in 2019, the Christchurch Call was launched to counter the increasing weaponization of the internet and to ensure that emerging tech is harnessed for good.
Since its inception, the Christchurch Call has evolved to include more than 120 government and private sector stakeholders. The organization, pioneered by the French and New Zealand governments, will hold its next major summit at the Paris Peace Forum in November.
Dame Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand who led the response to the Christchurch attack; Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media; and Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft sat down with CNN’s Rahel Solomon for a Global Stage livestream on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The event was hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with Microsoft.
Reflecting on the catastrophic attack that prompted the formation of the Call and its mission, Dame Ardern recalled how, on that day, ”I reached for my phone to be able to share that message on a social media platform, I saw the live stream.” She notes how that became a galvanizing moment: In the “aftermath of that period, we were absolutely determined … we had the attention of social media platforms in particular to do something that would try and prevent any other nation from having that experience again.”
That led to the formation of the organization in a mere eight-week period, Ardern said. But identifying hate speech and extremism online that can fuel violence is no small feat, Ardern acknowledges, adding that while the goal can indeed appear “lofty,” the group’s focus is on “setting expectations” around what should and shouldn’t be tolerated online.
But what did tech companies learn from the Christchurch experience about their own roles in moderating content, overseeing algorithms, and mitigating potential radicalization and violence?
One major development that came out of the Christchurch Call, Smith notes, is what’s known as a content incident protocol. “Basically, you have the tech companies and governments and others literally on call like doctors being summoned to the emergency room at tech companies and in governments so that the moment there is such a shooting, everybody immediately is alerted.”
Emerging technologies – most notably artificial intelligence – mean that the Christchurch Call must remain nimble in the face of new threats. Still, Ardern says that’s not necessarily a bad thing because AI presents both challenges and opportunities for the organization. “On the one hand we may see an additional contribution from AI to our ability to better manage content moderation that may be an upside,” she says. But “a downside,” she notes, “is that we may see it continue to contribute to or expand on some of the disinformation which contributes to radicalization.”
Bremmer shared this view of AI, calling it both “a tool of extraordinary productivity and growth, indeed globalization 2.0,” while also acknowledging the threat of disinformation proliferation: “Fundamental to a democratic society, an open society, a civil society, fundamental to human rights and the United Nations Charter is the idea that people are able to exchange information that they know is true, that they know is real,” he says.
Four years after the Christchurch attack, there is indeed a sense of urgency surrounding the need for governments to better understand emerging technologies and their powers over politics and society. “Governments understand that this is systemic, it is transformative, and they're not ready,” Bremmer says, adding that “they don't have the expertise, they don't have the resources, and we don't yet have the architecture … we're late!”
Watch today's livestream from the UN General Assembly
WATCH LIVE: A deadly terrorist attack in New Zealand was livestreamed in 2019, horrifying the world. The result was an international movement to end extremism and hate online. Join us live today at 11 am ET to learn about the Christchurch Call to Action, how it can create a safer and more secure world, and what global collaboration will look like in the AI era.
CNN's Rahel Solomon will moderate our livestream conversation during the 78th UN General Assembly, with Dame Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand and Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call; Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media; and Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft.
Hearing the Christchurch Call: Collaboration in the Age of AI
Wednesday, September 20th | 11:00 am -12:00 pm ET
Participants:
- Dame Jacinda Ardern, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call
- Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
- Ian Bremmer, President & Founder, Eurasia Group & GZERO Media
- Rahel Solomon, CNN (moderator)
And the (geopolitical) Oscar goes to …
It's the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, and we all know that the Oscars often get political. You can expect speeches to reference Russia's war in Ukraine and, of course, US culture-war issues like identity politics. But in this era of political hyper-polarization in America and beyond, we’ve got our own awards to give out.
Here are our picks for a few of the best performances of the past 12 months.
Best Documentary Feature: "The Little Short," by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, based on his get-rich-quick bestseller "Bukele's Guide to Wealth and Fame in Crypto Markets."
Best Cameo/Actress in a Limited TV Miniseries:Liz Truss as British PM.
Lifetime Achievement: Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for "My Trip to Taipei," a tour de force in DNGAF about the geopolitical consequences of my actions.
Best Costume Design: US Rep. (and alleged serial liar) George Santos (R-NY) as a drag queen in Brazil.
Best Editing: Xi Jinping for ending zero-COVID in China — and all references to it too.
Best Special Effects: The US/Russia/pro-Ukrainian group/we'll-never-know-who for the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.
Best Sound Editing in Parliament/Exit From the Party: Former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern.
Best Screenplay/Cinematography: C-SPAN for "The House Speaker Fight," an unexpectedly riveting story of failed votes, failed fistfights, and failed leadership in the US Congress.
Best Remake: Jair Bolsonaro, director of the 8 de Janeiro reboot of January 6.
Best Picture: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Balloon," a Kubrick-esque Cold War 2.0 satire featuring Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and a floating weapon of mass puns.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern throws in the towel
In a shock announcement on Thursday, New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern said she no longer has “enough in the tank” to continue in the top job and will step down on Feb. 7. Ardern, a darling of the center-left who in 2017 became the world’s youngest female head of government, led the nation of 5 million through a host of challenges in recent years, including the horrific massacre at two Christchurch mosques, the pandemic, and a volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island that killed 22 people. Like much of the developed world, New Zealand is currently in the throes of an inflationary crisis that’s forced the central bank to aggressively raise interest rates. What’s more, as the cost of living crunch hurts ordinary New Zealanders, Ardern’s Labour Party is falling behind the center-right National Party in the polls ahead of the next general election in Oct. 2023. It’s unclear who will replace her, but Ardern’s deputy, Grant Robertson, already said he does not want the gig. In a rare act of political civility – and yet another reason why we should all move to New Zealand – Ardern’s rival, Christopher Luxon, head of the National Party, thanked Ardern for her service and for giving her all to a "demanding job."
Future-proofing the internet from radicalization & extremist content
The Christchurch Call to Action, a political summit initiated by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, gathered during the UN’s General Assembly to renew its commitment to creating a safer digital world.
The Summit was formed in 2019 following a massive terror attack in Christchurch that left 51 dead and dozens wounded. The terrorist used social media to livestream the murderous rampage for several minutes, and the video was viewed by thousands before it was removed from the internet.
In an interview with GZERO Media, Paul Ash, PM Ardern’s Special Representative on Cyber and Digital, detailed the key issues discussed in the meeting. “The first, how do we respond to crises and keep people safe when the internet is abused by terrorists and violent extremists? Second, how do we think about prevention? Ash continued, “The third thing we looked at in our summit meeting was the question of how the Christchurch Call can remain current. How do we future-proof it as the internet changes into a more immersive environment?”
The Summit is aimed at combatting extremism and hate online, and, in particular, gender-based hatred and harassment and attacks on the LGBTQI communities.
Ash told GZERO that to ensure a free, open, and safe Internet of the future the Summit leaders also need to focus on emerging technologies that may create larger risks for people and societies.
“We've got our work cut out, as we think about the next eight years, to ensure that we build safety into that model, that we protect against cybersecurity attacks, and that we put people and citizens first in that process,” Ash said.
Report into New Zealand mosque attack focus on Islamist terror risks, firearms licensing
There were no failings within government agencies that would have alerted them to the imminent attack.
Ardern sworn in for second term as New Zealand PM
WELLINGTON • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was sworn in for a second term yesterday, as final election results showed her landslide victory was even bigger than previously thought.