Chris Keall: Jacinda Ardern’s mixed legacy with The Christchurch Call and social media

OPINION:

Few political leaders have had such a compelling presence on social media as Jacinda Ardern.

It was not so much that she developed a huge online audience (her Facebook followers: 1.9 million; Christopher Luxon’s 77,000), but the way she used it. Ardern was - and is - a natural on the medium.

At the height of her game, in 2020, her livestreams became a powerful way to directly connect with the electorate.

But maybe she got a little too close to the medium. Her Government’s efforts to rein in Big Tech have been mixed.

Open up the latest news from the South

Get daily South Island headlines straight to your inbox.

Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.

Email address

Sign Up

By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Read More

• Chris Keall: The Government’s Digital Council dies, as it was born, in high farce
• Revealed: The Super Fund's biggest tech bets - and a white flag in its Facebook fight
• Microsoft NZ tax near flat as profit jumps, revenue tops $1b for first time

After the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacres, Ardern organised the Christchurch Call - a summit in Paris that saw Governments, service providers and the main social media companies agree to work together to crack down on extremist content.

But the summit was big on general goals, and research, and light on specific measures.

The limited progress was on show at an Ardern livestream following the raucous occupation of Parliament’s grounds early last year.

As the PM spoke, hate comments and misinformation flooded her Facebook livestream (and the later archived version), including the false theory that police started a fire.

A graphic illustration of the limits of change since 2019: Jacinda Ardern's Facebook stream, after the Parliament lawn occupation in March 2021, plus one of the live (and later archived) false comments. Image / Facebook

A piece of Auckland and Victoria University research called the Disinformation Project, carried out between August 17, 2020 and November 5, 2022, found “a sharp increase in the popularity and intensity of Covid-19-specific disinformation and other forms of dangerous speech’ and disinformation” over the 12 weeks of the Delta lockdown on Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms.

Across the Tasman, Australia passed a law that could see social media executives jailed for up to three years and their companies fined up to 10 per cent of their revenue if they failed to take “swift” action against “abhorrent” content.

Ardern argued that a collaborative, multi-country approach was the only way to effect real change and that it would take time.

In comments to the Herald today, former InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter - who chaired the first Christchurch Call - backed that sentiment.

“The Christchurch Call was built on the understanding that the problem of online terrorist content had to be tackled, but that rushed legislation in New Zealand could never get that result,” Carter said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Jordan Carter from Internet New Zealand. Photo / Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

“Instead, Jacinda Ardern worked to build a coalition of countries and companies to tackle this problem in ways that could work. The Call has succeeded in reducing the volume and visibility of terrorist content online.

“She built a deep understanding of the issues and the difficult policy choices very quickly, and made sure New Zealand made a real and lasting difference in this area.”

At the time Australia’s tough cyber law was passed - April 2019 - NZ Council For Civil Liberties chair Thomas Beagle said it was not only too Big Brother, but unworkably vague and over-the-top in its punishments.

He predicted it would prove impractical - a prediction borne out by events.

It can be hard to make the case, given developments such as Christchurch victims families’ frustrations with the lack of progress online, the voluntary social media code released last year, which critics called toothless and too compromised by input and funding from the big social media firms themselves, a flawed Digital Council and, more recently, new Twitter owner Elon Musk sacking every staff member the NZ Government dealt with on the Christchurch Call and gutting moderation and safety teams.

Yet overall, the social media landscape has got better - marginally - and Ardern’s softly-softly, pragmatic, incremental-change approach could ultimately prove the most effective path.

But if so, it’s going to be a long journey, and one she’ll no longer be on after February 7.