Brenton Tarrant - Christchurch Mosque Shootings
The Christchurch mosque shootings were two consecutive terrorist shooting attacks at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that occurred during Friday Prayer on March 15th, 2019.
About The Attacks
The attacks began at the Al Noor Mosque in the suburb of Riccarton at 1:40 PM and continued at the Linwood Islamic Centre at 1:55 PM. The gunman, Brenton Tarrant, live-streamed the first attack on Facebook Live. He entered the mosque while shooting a shotgun before switching to a rifle and shooting people inside. During portions of the stream, the songs "Remove Kebab" and the Initial D song "Gas Gas Gas" could be heard playing in the background.
Within this news release you will find files pertaining to this attack and any future pertinent information that may come to light. Brenton Tarrant successfully killed 51 people and injured 49. He is a 28 year old Australian man described in various media reports as a white supremacist and a part of the alt-right. He was arrested and initially charged with one murder. He was later charged with 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and engaging in a terrorist act. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and the trial is expected to start in May of 2020.
The wednesday preceeding the attack, a twitter handle of @brentontarrant tweeted pictures of one of the guns believed to have been later used in the mosque attacks. It was covered in white lettering and featured the names of others who had committed race or religion-based killings as well as Cyrillic, Armenian and Georgian references to historigal figured and events.
Brenton also appeared to post regularly to 8chan's /pol/ board, an online discussion site known for allowing real freedom of speech and expression. He described himself as a "kebab removalist" and cites the "great replacement" conspiracy theory as the motivation for the attack. You may read his manifesto HERE.
The attacks themselves have been linked to an increase in white supremacy and alt-right extremism. Copies of the live-streamed videos were re-posted on many platforms including but not limited to sites such as Facebook, LiveLeak, Youtube and others. NZ Police and various other NZ entities urged anyone who found the footage to take it down or report it and the New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification quickly classified the video as 'objectionable' making it a criminal offense in the country to distribute, copy or exhibit the video with potential penalties of up to 14 years imprisonment for an individual or fines of up too $100,000 for corporations. You can watch a 5 minute video regarding this put out by TVNZ (New Zealand'z Public Broadcast Service).
Manifesto
In the manifesto written by Brenton Tarrant, he professes to be an eco-fascist and discusses the great replacement right-wing conspiracy theory. Robert Evans, a journalist, published an article titled "Shitposting, Inspirational Terrorist and the Christchurch Mosque Massacre" on his blog BellingCat which examined the use of memes and shitposting by the suspect.
Censorship Attempts
Sharing news in conjunction with the manifesto and the live-streamed videos doesn't go without censorship attempts by various irrelevant (in our opinion) New Zealand entities. Various NZ based ISP's blocked access (through DNS blackholing) to sites like 4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak, Mega, KiwiFarms and EY.M due to them hosting such content.
On March 18th of 2019, the Australian news channel 9 News reported that an 18-year-old New Zealander had been arrested for sharing the livestream video of the attack. Though he was granted interim name suppresion, he was declined bail and charged with sharing the video along with a photograph of one of the mosques with the message "target acquired" and "inciting violence". That day, Chief Censor David Shanks (read: irrelevant moron) released a statement that the video of the attack was illegal to share, view or download. We wish him good luck in his future endeavors enforcing that on Non-NZ entities and individuals. We've included a picture of him below for your viewing pleasure.
Given that InformThePublic was founded with the intent of following the laws of the United States and to be transparent, we've decided to allow access to anyone who wishes to view the relevant videos and materials we describe on our file storage, which you can find by clicking here. Think it's unfair? We implore you to read the Washington Post article regarding the United States DECLINING to endorse a New Zealand-led 'effort to curb extremism online'. The United States has something called The Bill of Rights and its' respective Amendments. Service providers such as KiwiFarms, EY.MD, Mega and many others faced scrutiny, abuse reports and downright censorship attempts for sharing content from the Christchurch attacks. As we operate fully within the United States and follow all applicable laws, we do not intend to remove any such content unless faced with a valid United States court order. Let's also not forget the fact that numerous members of law enforcement from within the United States reached out to KiwiFarms and other providers asking that a copy of the video be sent to them for active shooter training.
You can read some of the news articles regarding the censorship below:
Below you will find some of the back and forth communications between various service providers and New Zealand entities regarding the files.
From: Ben McDowall Ben.McDowall@spark.co.nz
To: "mj@ey.md" mj@ey.md
Subject: Please remove live Christchurch murder videos
Thread-Topic: Please remove live Christchurch murder videos
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2019 05:28:25 +0000
x-originating-ip: [122.60.2.184]
https://up.ey.md/f.php?h=0rOQvelO
https://up.ey.md/f.php?h=2XN6P_7t
https://up.ey.md/f.php?h=2XN6P_7t&p=1
https://up.ey.md/f.php?h=22xG635V
This email, including any attachments, is confidential. If you have received this email in error, please let me know and then delete it - do not read, use, or distribute it or its contents. This email does not designate an information system for the purposes of the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.
From: Mike Jones [mj@ey.md]
To: Ben McDowall Ben.McDowall@spark.co.nz
Subject: Re: Please remove live Christchurch murder videos
Organization: EY.MD
These files are not breaking our Terms of Service. As a result, we will not be removing them.
Mike Jones
https://ey.md
mj@ey.md
Conclusion
In conclusion, the attacks that occurred on that day are a matter of public record and need to be available for the purpose of educating the general public and ensuring that such actions do not happen in the future. New Zealand based television stations and online newspapers continue to make available videos and general information regarding terrorist attacks commited on U.S. soil. As such, it is hypocritical of them to attempt to censor such content simply due to it relating to a NZ based terrorist attack.
InformThePublic does not endorse the actions of Brenton Tarrant nor any other individuals or organizations that violate laws. Reporting on crime does not constitute an endorsement of it.
As always: InformThePublic is for adult audiences. If it is illegal for you to view adult material where you live, please leave.