The Christchurch Call to Action Summit, was a political summit initiated by New Zealand Prime MinisterJacinda 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 of France, the summit aimed to "bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism". World leaders and technology companies pledged to "eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online"; Seventeen 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, and one for the ways in which the two can work together.
The United States declined to attend, expressing concerns that US compliance with the agreement could create conflicts with free-speech protections in the country's Constitution; the United States however did support the summit's "overarching message" and "endorsed its overall goals".
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 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 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 that the Call's goal for governments to work with companies to stop "violent extremist content" would breach Americans' First Amendment rights, using war footage on YouTube as an example of content that could be blocked under this agreement. Nick Gillespie of Reason 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."
