US welcome in battle against online extremism, conference told

Any eventual move by the United States to join the Christchurch Call would be welcome, a conference on social media after the mosque attacks has heard.

Paul Ash, of the Christchurch Call, said the new US presidential administration was generally taking a different approach to the former Trump administration.

Although it was not among the 48 nations that had formally supported the call, the US had been "very supportive", and had helped achieve much positive work, he said.

The conference, devoted to "New Ec(h)o Systems: Democracy in the Age of Social Media", was organised this week by the University of Otago’s National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

The Christchurch Call to Action Summit took place in Paris on May 15, 2019, and sought to bring together countries and tech companies to "end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism".

Mr Ash said the call was already supported by many countries and the European Commission.

Mr Ash, who is the prime minister’s special representative on cyber and digital, said the call’s collaborative approach partly reflected the reality that "we can’t just regulate our way out of this".

"We’re going to have to think creatively," he said.