On March 15, two consecutive terrorist attacks were conducted against mosques in the Christchurch, New Zealand area during Friday prayer. 50 people were killed and another 50 were injured. The perpetrator was arrested and discovered with other weapons and bombs, which were likely intended for further attacks. The shooter’s manifesto shows that his motivations were based in race and religion and that he targeted mosques to spread fear and hatred in New Zealand as well as the world. In addition to making his manifesto, the attack was livestreamed on Facebook for over 29 minutes and was shared widely before Facebook was able to take action to shut the stream down and prevent it from being shared.
The social media aspect of this attack has grown more and more relevant as it has become obvious that the shooter was radicalized through social media and the internet. The shooter in his manifesto made references to many different internet phenomena, memes, videogames, and other pieces of pop culture. This is seen as a common tactic of those who are a part of the alt-right to make their ideology more approachable and interesting to the uninitiated. In addition to this, while most of the world mourned these horrible attacks, many of those on websites such as 4chan, 8chan, and Breitbart celebrated the massacre and discussed conspiracy theories related to the shooting. These sorts of comments on alt-right terrorist attacks seem to be the norm on such sites.
A much kinder and more humanitarian reaction came from the New Zealand government however, as they have made significant efforts to support the effected communities and to ensure the safety of their citizens. These actions have included a day of mourning, increased security, donations to those effected, and an official inquiry into the shootings. The most prominent and decisive action taken however would be the increased gun restrictions that the NZ government has put in place since the shooting. The government has even banned assault rifles and many gun accessories that help make mass shootings possible. This only took 3 days to be implemented and a buyback program is already well underway. These actions surprised many in the U.S. as legislative reactions to mass shootings in the U.S. typically take much longer and are less sweeping. Hopefully these actions will help New Zealand to prevent such tragedies in the future and teach us how to do the same.
JOSEPH DONER
Political Editor