Christchurch Call summit
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The Christchurch Call to Action Summit (also called the Christchurch Call), was a political summit initiated by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that took place on 15 May 2019 in Paris, France, two months after the Christchurch mosque shootings of 15 March 2019. Co-chaired by Ardern and President
Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
of France, the summit aimed to "bring together countries and
tech companies A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technology, technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details Accor ...
in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote
terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
and violent extremism". World leaders and technology companies pledged to "eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online"; 17 countries originally signed the non-binding agreement, with another 31 countries following suit on 24 September the same year. The pledge consists of three sections or commitments: one for governments, one for
online service providers An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...
, and one for the ways in which the two can work together.


Signatories

Among the signatories to the pledge are the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
,
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, and the governments of the following countries: * Argentina * Australia * Austria * Belgium * Bulgaria * Canada * Chile * Colombia * Croatia * Cyprus * Czech Republic * Denmark * Estonia * Finland * France * Georgia * Germany * Ghana * Greece * Hungary * Iceland * Indonesia * India * Ireland * Italy * Ivory Coast * Japan * Jordan * Kenya * Republic of Korea * Latvia * Lithuania * Luxembourg * Maldives * Malta * Mexico * Mongolia * The Netherlands * New Zealand * Norway * Peru * Poland * Portugal * Romania * Senegal * Slovakia * Slovenia * Spain * Sri Lanka * Sweden * Switzerland * Tunisia * United Kingdom * United States The following online service providers, as part of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) consortium, also signed the pledge: *
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*
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*
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*
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*
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* Qwant *
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*
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The United States declined to attend in 2019, expressing concerns that US compliance with the agreement could create conflicts with free-speech protections in the country's
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
; the United States however did support the summit's "overarching message" and "endorsed its overall goals". On 7 May 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the United States would be joining the Christchurch Call and participate in a virtual summit on 14 May 2021.


Commentary

Bryan Keogh wrote in '' The Conversation'' that the summit "has made excellent progress as a first step to change, but we need to take this opportunity to push for systemic change in what has been a serious, long-term problem."
InternetNZ InternetNZ (officially Internet New Zealand Inc., formerly the Internet Society of New Zealand) is a not-for-profit open membership organisation and the designated manager for the .nz country code top-level internet domain. It also supports the ...
CEO Jordan Carter called the summit "a vital first step" to addressing terrorism and violent extremism online, saying that it was "important that governments and online service providers have come together on this issue, to agree real, actionable changes." Jillian York of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
praised the Call for asking companies to provide greater transparency regarding its moderation practices, while expressing concerns about how terms such as "terrorism" and "violent extremism" are defined by various governments. Tom Rogan argued in the ''
Washington Examiner The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...
'' that the Call's goal for governments to work with companies to stop "violent extremist content" would breach Americans'
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
rights, using war footage on YouTube as an example of content that could be blocked under this agreement. Nick Gillespie of ''
Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
'' criticized the summit, writing that "it should be deeply worrying to anyone who believes in free expression that governments and corporations are openly working together to decide what is and is not acceptable speech."


References


External links

*{{Official website 2019 in Paris 2019 in international relations 21st-century diplomatic conferences Christchurch mosque shootings Counterterrorism Internet censorship May 2019 events in France Social media France–New Zealand relations Conferences in Paris Jacinda Ardern Emmanuel Macron 2019 conferences