The Christchurch Call to Action is a voluntary commitment initiated by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on 15 May 2019, two months after a gunman livestreamed the Christchurch mosque shootings on Facebook, killing 51 people. The attack's viral spread across major platforms exposed how livestreaming and algorithmic amplification could turn an act of terrorism into globally circulated propaganda within minutes.
The Call asks governments to enforce laws against terrorist content, support free media, and build societal resilience, and asks online service providers to take measures such as transparent content standards, faster removal of terrorist material, crisis response protocols, and review of algorithms that may drive users toward extremist content. It explicitly states that responses must be consistent with a free, open, and secure internet and with international human rights law, including freedom of expression.
Founding supporters included France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, the European Commission, and major platforms including Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube. The United States initially declined to join, citing First Amendment concerns, but joined under the Biden administration in May 2021. Membership has since grown to over 55 governments and many companies and civil society organisations.
Operationally, the Call helped reshape the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) into an independent organisation and prompted the Content Incident Protocol, a coordinated industry response triggered, for example, after the 2022 Buffalo shooting livestream.
Critics — including parts of civil society and the Call's own advisory network — warn that pressure for rapid removals can over-censor legitimate speech, particularly journalism and counter-speech, and that algorithmic transparency commitments remain underdelivered. As a soft-law instrument, the Call has no enforcement mechanism; compliance is reputational and tracked through annual summits and a multistakeholder Advisory Network.
Example
After the May 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting was livestreamed on Twitch, Christchurch Call signatories activated the GIFCT Content Incident Protocol to coordinate removal of the video across platforms.
Frequently asked questions
No. It is a voluntary, non-binding political commitment. Compliance is reputational, supported by annual summits, working groups, and an Advisory Network of civil society organisations.
Keep learning