bleepingcomputer.com
Following the Friday mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, multiple internet service providers (ISP) in the country have blocked access to websites that distribute gruesome content from the incident.
The attacker live-streamed on his Facebook account his actions that got 49 people killed. A link to the video and a lengthy "manifesto" appeared on Zig Forums forum, allegedly shared by the shooter. Copies of the 17-minute footage spread to other websites, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit.
As mainstream platforms struggled to take down the video and segments of it, some websites continue to make the materials available.
Telcos take action
At least three internet companies operating in New Zealand have made this decision voluntarily and enforce it on a temporary basis against sites that still publish the sensitive materials.
Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ, and Vocus NZ agreed to work together to identify and block access at DNS level to such online locations. Zig Forums and 4chan are currently unavailable to New Zealanders trying to load them through a connection from the three telcos.
The block is not permanent, though. As soon as the horrific content from the Christchurch incident originating from the terrorists is removed, access to the website is reestablished.
"Where material is identified the site is temporarily blocked and the site is notified, requesting they remove the material," Meera Kaushik, External Communications Advisor at Vodafone NZ, told BleepingComputer, adding that "a number of sites blocked and then unblocked in this way".
Simon Moutter, Managing Director of Spark NZ, confirmed that his company took the same stance, in an effort to protect children and vulnerable people from the explicit images from the incident.