The Australian government is currently consulting on a draft online safety bill where a government official may give a voluntary blocking request or mandatory blocking notice to an internet service provider to disable access to AVM or material that promotes, incites or instructs in abhorrent violent conduct for up to three months.Īs someone who has archived thousands of pieces of violent digital material, I wonder what this legislation would look like in practice. In one video game, the game character, Brenton Tarrant, walks through Al Noor mosque, with the aim of the game to kill 51 enemies.

I’ve witnessed a series of digital photographs, videos and video games created by supporters of the shooter to celebrate the elimination of Muslims in their religious sites.

It has become a digitised haunting that took place on stolen land.īeyond its digital broadcast, the Christchurch massacre turned a familiar space macabre – the mosque. While the Christchurch massacre becomes but a memory for the settler state, as we now pass the two-year anniversary of the event, it still resonates beyond its newsworthiness for Muslim subjects. Steeped in the phrases and conventions of online culture, killing on Indigenous land, Tarrant’s actions were supported by a growing online community that celebrated his crime. I have spent the last two years studying the online reception, celebration and discussion of the Christchurch massacre online, contextualised in the settler histories of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand. This is a reality that must not be lost when exploring the Christchurch massacre – it is a visceral act of violence that was felt, blood was drawn, lives were mercilessly taken, final moments of life were terrorised. This extended the violence inflicted upon the victims of the Christchurch massacre and the survivors to those who identify with them. Online, the violently executed Muslims became a spectacle for laughter for a celebratory community. Then, when met with armed police, he dropped his weapons and silently surrendered. Tarrant emptied his ammunition into my brothers and sisters’ bodies. Spraying bullets, blood scattering on carpets and prayer mats. In prayer, at their most defencelessness, 51 Muslims were killed, and 49 Muslims were injured. Haji-Daoud, the founder of Al Noor mosque, said “hello brother.” Tarrant was embraced with open arms and his response was to open fire. When Tarrant entered the first mosque, he was met by an older Muslim man named Haji-Daoud Nabi.

Christchurch shooting original video