New Zealand Police had requested that media outlets refrain from publishing any of the shooter's materials, including a 17-minute video live-streamed online during the attack that quickly spread on social media.
The Hill reports platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit all worked to remove the video, though they faced difficulty in implementing a blanket ban and the footage kept reappearing and disappearing online.
The Daily Mail, a popular publication in the United Kingdom, initially posted a story on the shooting that showed an edited version of the terrorist’s video in which he could be seen approaching one of the mosques with his weapon drawn.
Another story featured a PDF file of the accused gunman's entire 74-page manifesto, which included a host of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. That file has since been deleted and the video was removed.The Sun, another tabloid, also showed edited footage of the shooter’s video, defending its decision by saying any parts of the clip explicitly showing violence were cut out.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror was forced to take down a story after it published parts of the shooter’s video, including clips where he is seen shooting at people on the street.
Sky News also initially aired parts of the attacker’s video on its broadcast, only to have its entire show taken down and replaced with Fox Sports. The broadcast was still aired in Australia since Sky Australia is an independent company.
Friday's attack and the subsequent footage renewed a challenge for many media outlets balancing coverage of the shooting that left 49 people dead with a desire not to glorify the perpetrator of a high-profile attack.
"We are seeing, even on social media, a backlash," Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate professor at the State University of New York at Oswego who has researched mass shootings, told NBC News.
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