Facebook deleted 1.5M videos of New Zealand terror attack in the first 24 hours

Facebook has recently stated that it has removed almost 1.5 million videos of New Zealand Christchurch Mosque massacre in the first 24 hours after the incident.

The popular social media networking website posted a tweet on Saturday night saying that they blocked the majority of videos before they could make it to the web.

The tweet by Facebook states, “In the first 24 hours we removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of which over 1.2 million were blocked at upload…,”

Not only that, but Facebook says it is removing all the edited videos of the attack as well. Facebook’s New Zealand spokeswomen said that “It is being done out of the respect for the people affected by this tragedy and the concerns of local authorities.”

The attack occurred on Friday afternoon when a “right wing extremist” armed with weapons, entered the Christchurch Mosque, brutally killed 49 Muslims and live streamed the shooting video on Facebook. According to the recent reports, out of those 49 Muslims, at least 4 people were Pakistani’s who died as well.

The video was about 17 minutes long which Facebook deleted instantly, but many people downloaded it and uploaded it on their YouTube channels. YouTube is also encouraging users to flag any video related to the attack.

Authorities in New Zealand reported that 50 people died in the attack and the suspect Brenton Harrison Tarrant, appeared in court on Saturday and was charged with one count of murder.