About Us
On 15 March 2019 a terrorist attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people and injuring 50. The horrific event was livestreamed by the terrorist for 17 minutes, and was viewed over 4,000 times before being removed.
On 15 May 2019, the New Zealand and France launched the Christchurch Call with Leaders from governments, civil society, and industry, responding to the unprecedented horror of a terrorist attack in Christchurch that killed 51 people, produced for and livestreamed on the internet.
On that day, we made a firm commitment to each other and to affected victims and communities that we would take strong, decisive action to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. We would not allow terrorists and violent extremists to undermine human rights online nor our ability to realise the benefits of a free, open, and secure global internet.
The Call represents a new kind of global initiative. It is multistakeholder, departing from traditional diplomatic or industry models for cooperation. It is led by the most senior decisionmakers. It is based on shared values that set the bar for participation.
We continue to grow and thrive as a Call community, comprising 55 national governments and the European Commission, 19 online service providers, 13 partner organisations, and more than 50 civil society experts and organisations. This community makes us strong and effective, in the face of continuing challenges and threats.
We’ve made significant progress, from new policies and practices, better transparency, new tools deployed across the community, crisis protocols, and action to combat the drivers of terrorism and violent extremism.
Despite our successes, the problem has not gone away. Terrorists and violent extremists continue to develop new tactics and exploit new technologies to share their abhorrent content online, increasingly targeting young people for recruitment and radicalisation. These are issues we need to face head on, together.
Five years on, the governments of New Zealand and France announced that the Call Secretariat would transition into a new, non-government organisation called ‘The Christchurch Call Foundation.’
Today, ‘The Christchurch Call Foundation’ continues the work that the governments of New Zealand and France began in 2019, supporting our multistakeholder community as it works together. The Call Community remains strong and continues to grow.