“Facebook’s decision to put limits on livestreaming is a good first step to restrict the application being used as a tool for terrorists and shows the Christchurch Call is being acted on,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

“Today’s announcement addresses a key component of the Christchurch Call, a shared commitment to making livestreaming safer.

“The March 15 terrorist highlighted just how easily livestreaming can be misused for hate. Facebook has made a tangible first step to stop that act being repeated on their platform.

“Facebook’s announcement of new research into detecting manipulated media across images, video and audio in order to take it down is welcomed.

“Multiple edited and manipulated versions of the March 15 massacre quickly spread online, and the take down was slow as a result. New technology to prevent the easy spread of terrorist content will be a major contributor to making social media safer for users, and stopping the unintentional viewing of extremist content like so many people in New Zealand did after the attack, including myself, when it auto played in Facebook feeds.

“The Christchurch Call gets agreement from tech companies to take initiatives to end the spread of terrorist content online. There is a lot more work to do, but I am pleased Facebook has taken additional steps today alongside the Call and look forward to a long term collaboration to make social media safer by removing terrorist content from it.”