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Jacinda Ardern on AI's role in countering extremism online
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says AI can be both a force for good and a tool for harm.
“AI has either the possibility of…providing interventions and disruption, or it has the ability to also further harms, increase radicalization, and exacerbate issues of terrorism and extremism online.”
Ardern highlights the Christchurch Call initiative, which brings together over 130 organizations to address emerging technology risks. “We need smaller operators to have access to these tools,” she said, noting the creation of open-source initiatives like Elevate and algorithmic research projects aimed at understanding and disrupting pathways to radicalization. She also points to Catalyst, a project tackling the intersection of gender-based violence and online extremism.
She spoke with GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis at the 2025 Paris Peace Forum panel, “Collective Resilience in the Age of AI,” part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series with Microsoft.
Jacinda Ardern and Lisa Monaco on cybersecurity, AI, and protecting democracy
In an era characterized by rapid technological advancement, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence present both challenges and opportunities.
At the 2025 Paris Peace Forum, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis engages in an insightful conversation with Dame Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Lisa Monaco, President of Global Affairs at Microsoft, discussing strategies for a secure digital future.
Ardern reflects on the Christchurch terrorist attacks and the subsequent global initiative she led, known as "The Christchurch Call," aimed at eliminating terrorist and violent extremist content online. She asserts, "We can't let crisis be the catalyst for future cooperation," highlighting the need for cross-sector collaboration to counter online extremism.
Monaco examines the shifting cyber landscape, observing, "AI is both a tool and a weapon," and emphasizes the importance of a coordinated international response.
The panel discussion sheds light on proactive measures and partnerships necessary for safeguarding digital spaces and ensuring democratic integrity.
This conversation is part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, presented in partnership with Microsoft.
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and special envoy for the Christchurch Appeal Jacinda Ardern arrives at the 5th Christchurch Appeal Summit, co-chaired by her and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Nov. 10, 2023.
Call to crack down on terrorist content
OpenAI and Anthropic, two of AI’s biggest startups, signed on to the Christchurch Call to Action at a summit in Paris on Friday, pledging to suppress terrorist content. The perpetrator of the Christchurch shooting was reportedly radicalized by far-right content on Facebook and YouTube, and he livestreamed the attack on Facebook.
While the companies have agreed to “regular and transparent public reporting” about their efforts, the commitment is voluntary — meaning they won’t face real consequences for any failures to comply. Still, it’s a strong signal that the battle against online extremism, which started with social media companies, is now coming for AI companies.
Under US law, internet companies are generally protected from legal liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The issue was deflected by the Supreme Court last year in two terrorism-related cases, with the Justices ruling that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue Google and Twitter under US anti-terrorism laws. But there’s a rich debate brewing as to whether Section 230 protects AI chatbots like ChatGPT, a question that’s bound to wind up in court. Sen. Ron Wyden, one of the authors of Section 230, has called AI “unchartered territory” for the law.
Fighting online hate: Global internet governance through shared values
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.
In a recent Global Stage livestream, from the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly, former New Zealand Prime Minster Dame Jacinda Ardern discussed the challenges and disparities inherent in the ever-evolving digital age, ranging from unrestricted online platforms in liberal democracies to severe content limitations in certain countries.
“If you look beyond just liberal democracies, on the one hand you have the discussion about free speech and the view that some hold around being able to use online platforms to publish just about anything. Then in some countries, the inability to publish anything at all,” said Ardern.
In her new role, as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, she advocated for departing from conventional country-centric strategies and proposed a foundation built upon shared values instead, prioritizing the safeguarding of human rights and the preservation of an open internet over national interests. “Let's establish the value set, the common problem identification to bring everyone around the table.”
Watch the full Global Stage Livestream conversation here: Hearing the Christchurch Call
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Christchurch Call had a global impact on tech giants - Microsoft's Brad Smith
The Christchurch killer livestreamed his heinous crimes, highlighting a macabre threat ensconced within the relatively new field of social media. Extremists could use the technology to get the attention of millions of people — and perhaps even find some incentive for their violence in that fact.
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, in a recent Global Stage livestream, from the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly, says the technology industry set out to ensure extremists could “never again” reach mass audiences during massacres. Tech companies, governments and civil society groups work together on the so-called Content Incident Protocol, a sort of digital emergency response plan.
Now, people are on call 24/7 to intervene early, shut down broadcasts, and cooperate with authorities. Smith says the impact has been transformative and urged further efforts to enhance safety against online extremism.
Watch the full Global Stage Livestream conversation here: Hearing the Christchurch Call
Will consumers ever trust AI? Regulations and guardrails are key
Would you launch a product 52% of people said they feared would negatively impact their life?
If you answered no, you aren’t in the AI business. A recent Pew poll shows more than half of Americans describe themselves as more pessimistic than optimistic about artificial intelligence’s impact on their daily lives.
But the incredible potential of AI technology and its ease of proliferation means it’s coming, ready or not. The challenge to tech companies, governments, and civil society is standing up guardrails and regulations that will nudge public opinion toward widespread trust.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith and Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer sat down to discuss the problem and its geopolitical implications in a recent Global Stage livestream, from the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly.
Watch the full Global Stage Livestream conversation here: Hearing the Christchurch Call
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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!”