President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern mobilized a group of Heads of State and Government, international organizations, business leaders and digital organizations to take action against terrorist content and violent extremism online, and to stop the exploitation of the Internet by terrorist actors.  

Through the Christchurch Appeal – the name of the New Zealand city in which 51 people from the Muslim community died in the terrorist attacks broadcast live on the Internet on March 15 – 10 heads of state, Government and international organizations, as well as major players in the digital sector, commit themselves to take collective action, in conjunction with civil society, to eliminate these online content.  

The Christchurch Appeal is an action plan that commits governments, international organizations and Internet players to take a series of measures, including: developing tools to prevent the downloading of violent terrorist and extremist content; fight against the causes of violent extremism; improve transparency in the detection and removal of content; and ensure that algorithms designed and used by companies do not direct users to violent extremist content, in order to reduce virality.   “We can be proud of what we started today with the Christchurch Call. We have taken concrete steps to prevent a tragedy like Christchurch from happening again. The terrorist attack of March 15 shocked, particularly by its instrumentalization of social networks. With the call of Christchurch, we have taken a unique approach to solving this problem, “said Jacinda Ardern.   For the first time, governments, international organizations, businesses and digital organizations have agreed on a package of measures and long-term collaboration to make the Internet safer.   The work being done today is only the first step toward a common goal of eliminating online terrorist content. But the measures taken to achieve this are not limited to what has been done today: it was agreed to continue collaborative work to improve collective security.   “We must undertake these efforts for those affected by the Christchurch bombing, and for other cities around the world hit by terrorism and violent extremism. ”   The Appeal takes into account the fact that the regulatory action of States alone will not be enough to solve the problem. It is necessary to call on the creativity and technical know-how of Internet companies and organizations to find solutions, while ensuring respect for the freedom of the Internet and preserving the Internet’s beneficial actions.   The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, declared: “We must build a free, open and secure Internet, which gives everyone the opportunity to share, learn, innovate, but which also allows us to defend our values , protect our citizens and empower them. ”   The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, said: “Starting today, we will work alongside other actors involved in the Christchurch Call to bring together more partners and develop a series of concrete initiatives to ensure that the promises made today will be implemented “.  

New Zealand and France will bring the Christchurch Appeal to other countries and businesses and advance these goals in other international forums. We will meet again this year at the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly where we hope that significant progress will have been made in this area.   The Appeal has been adopted by France, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, the United Kingdom, Senegal, Indonesia, the European Commission as well as by Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Qwant, Twitter, Youtube and DailyMotion. Other countries including Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden also supported the Call.  

The call text and list of supports are available at www.ChristchurchCall.com

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