Opinion: Banning livestreaming on Facebook (and other social sites) isn’t a solution to curbing violent and hateful content.

In the wake of the Christchurch attacks, where a white, male terrorist from Grafton, Australia, killed 50 people and injured dozens more, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is now looking at banning live stream — and also possibly Facebook, unfortunately.

But in mine, as well as many people’s opinions, banning livestreaming on Facebook does not solve anything and can in fact, be problematic. First of all, only a very small minority of people would abuse the live stream function, and the majority of those who do this kind of violent and extremist streaming come from hate/violent groups or have affiliations with them (PEGIDA, soldiers of odin). Second of all, it restricts the freedom of expression on the majority of good-faith people. And what is more important, it can be problematic, as a lot of people use livestreaming to be in paid sponsorships e.g luxury brands and public bloggers as well as makeup art, gaming, cooking/baking, mixology, education, activism, health/beauty (this list is NOT exhaustive) and additionally, creators who livestream and make money from it could potentially be cut of (or at least reduced) from royalties IF the New Zealand government bans livestreaming on Facebook (OR Facebook in it’s entity) .

The REAL solution is that the government should —

1. Ban ALL people affiliated with hate groups or is found to be a member of a hate group from live streaming. (UPDATE: Facebook has announced that this will happen starting from today)
2. As soon as there is a single hint of real life violence in the live video, stop the live streaming. Also remove any violent video reported to Facebook or other social media sites.
3. Blanket ban on ALL hate groups from social media. Also have police monitor their groups, points on meetups, keeping a close eye on their communication etc.
4. Request that social media giants verify (with the verified tick) ALL blogger, creator, artist, celebrity, journalist, public figure of interest, activist and sponsored partner accounts. (this also helps to let people know which accounts are real and not fake/impostor.)
5. Deny well known people with bad faith a visa to New Zealand (e.g Lauren southern, Tommy Robinson etc.) Deport and extradite people from New Zealand if they have been caught coming here with the purpose of joining hate groups, or are found to participate in hateful and abusive activities.

So why do bloggers, artists and creators have to suffer all because of one white supremacist and terrorist? Bloggers have worked hard, have contributed to society, and deserve an income that Facebook and other sites can give them. Jacinda Ardern is threatening to take away that and therefore, in my opinion, and as a blogger, we as innocent creators, artists and bloggers, gamers, make up artists and celebrities are being punished by the New Zealand government for what this wretched terrorist did and also for the actions of the hateful right wing groups and individuals.

What’s more, if the government bans live streaming- and Facebook, that means the government has let the terrorists win (I’m also pretty certain that this is what the Christchurch terrorist wanted). What’s more, businesses and charities could lose their income and profit. So can celebrities, content creators and bloggers and vloggers. It also absolutely does NOTHING to solve the hate speech problem because the government focuses on stripping innocent people of their right to use Facebook rather than actually fixing the REAL problem- hate speech, hate groups, individuals who are known for spreading violent extremist and hateful content, fake news, misinformation and the spread of Russian and troll bot accounts.