World leaders and technology company executives are meeting next month in an effort to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.
"What we're trying to tackle here is a global issue and therefore I think requires a global response," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week, when she announced she would be co-hosting the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, all headquarted in the United States, are confirmed attendees. But thus far, there's no evidence technology companies from other countries will be there; despite the fact social media platforms in China, for example, are as big, or bigger, than their American counterparts.
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Chinese social media platforms, however, were relatively slow in censoring the content. The video was easily found on Weibo, described as the China's Twitter, and multi-purpose messaging app WeChat, days after the massacre, ABC reported.
"They took 48 hours to take down the Christchurch video, and that's not surprising — I don't think it was political priority," says Dr Belinda Barnet, senior lecturer in social media at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.
China is known for its online censorship and interference, she says: "They're good at removing content."
While she can't comment on political motivations, she says from a technical perspective: "If something is a priority, it's taken down fairly quickly."
The content was eventually censored, but there's been little said about the delay. Or about social media platforms in Asia, at all.
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BIG AND UNTOUCHABLE
Weibo has around 430 million active monthly users (Twitter has around 326 million). WeChat, the biggest mobile app in China, has more than a billion active monthly users. Initially seen as a messaging app, it can now be used to make voice and video calls, mobile payments, transport bookings, and food orders.
So why wouldn't they be included in so-called global discussions?
In short, because New Zealand and Australia don't have a lot of leverage over them, Barnet says. "It makes sense to focus on countries that are traditionally aligned and tend to support each other, with respect to this kind of thing."