New Zealand privacy official slams Facebook as ‘pathological liars who enable genocide’ in wake of Christchurch terror attack

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards made the comments after Mark Zuckerberg recently rejected calls to introduce a delay in Facebook Live, saying it would interfere with the interactivity of live streaming

‘It is a technology that is capable of causing great harm,’ Edwards told local media

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:08pm, 8 Apr 2019Updated: 10:02pm, 8 Apr 2019

New Zealand’s official privacy watchdog on Monday slammed Facebook as “morally bankrupt” and suggested his country follow neighbouring Australia’s lead by making laws that could jail executives over live-streamed violence such as the Christchurch terror attack.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has been critical of Facebook’s response to a gunman using the platform to live-stream part of the massacre that left 50 Muslim worshippers dead and wounded another 50 others at two mosques on March 15.

Edwards made his comments after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently rejected calls to introduce a delay in Facebook Live, saying it would interfere with the interactivity of live-streaming.

New Zealand Privacy Commissioner John Edwards. Photo: AP

“Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions,” Edwards said in a series of since-deleted tweets.

Facebook has been criticised for not doing enough to police hate speech in Myanmar, where a government campaign against minority Rohinyga Muslims has been described by the UN as ethnic cleansing. The platform has also been at the centre of claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.