No one reported Facebook live video of New Zealand terror attack until 12 minutes after it finished

It has been revealed that no one on Facebook reported the video of the Christchurch terror attack while it was being streamed live.

Facebook said it was 29 minutes after the video had started and 12 minutes after it had ended before the first user flagged up the footage.

The attack was streamed live by gunman Brenton Tarrant as he massacred Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand. A few Facebook users watched the attack as it happened live but took no proactive steps to report it to Facebook.

A blog post by Chris Sonderby, vice president and deputy general counsel at Facebook, said the video was viewed fewer than 200 times during its live broadcast.

He wrote: 

The video was viewed about 4,000 times in total before being removed from Facebook.

The first user report on the original video came in 29 minutes after the video started, and 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended.

Before we were alerted to the video, a user on 8chan posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site.

Mr Sonderby said Facebook was working around the clock to prevent the video from reappearing on its site.

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed never to speak the name of the Christchurch gunman and said the person responsible would face the “full force of the law”.

In a speech to the country’s parliament, Ms Ardern asked people “to speak the names of those who are lost, rather than the name of the man who took them.”

She said: “He sought many things from his act of terror but one was notoriety. That is why you will never hear me mention his name.”