Episode 295 - The Christchurch Massacre

On the 15th of March, 2019, a 28-year-old man walked into a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, holding a shotgun and semi-automatic rifle – and opened fire. 

And what set this story apart was not just its brutality, but also the way it was staged – from the internet, for the internet. The gunman had strapped a GoPro to his helmet, and was streaming every second of the Christchurch shooting over Facebook Live. And just before he entered Al-Noor mosque, he said to his online audience: “Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.”

We look at online radicalisation, the deep internet meta-humour that was littered through the manifesto – and the role of platforms like 8chan and YouTube in the rise of far-right terrorism.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/mar/19/the-christchurch-massacre-and-the-rise-of-far-right-extremism

https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/the-report/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/podcasts/the-daily/new-zealand-mosque-shooting.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-shootout-shock-idUSKCN1QW12N

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/16/asia/new-zealand-suspect-brenton-tarrant-about-intl/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-zealand-mosque-shootings

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/technology/facebook-youtube-christchurch-shooting.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/reader-center/new-zealand-media-coverage.html

‘Rabbit Hole’, New York Times

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