Tauranga woman to lead 50-hour Facebook blackout for Christchurch massacre victims

The community have come together in light of the tragedy. Photo / Stephen Parker

A Tauranga woman is leading a charge to hold a 50-hour Facebook shutdown to take a stand for the Christchurch massacre victims.

The blackout was set to take place at 1.40pm this Friday, the exact same time the offender started his broadcasting the shooting via livestream.

People were encouraged to stay off the social media platform for 50 hours, one hour for every victim, with the aim of getting the attention of Facebook.

The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Facebook allowed the livestream to be shared more than 1.5 million times and 17 minutes of the footage to be broadcast around the world.

Facebook only took action after a call from the New Zealand police, she said.

The event was hoped to encourage Facebook to take action to ensure nothing like this could ever happen again on such a public platform.

"In a time when technology has been developed that can automatically remove photos, videos, and text that violate their policies we believe they should be doing more to prevent these atrocities occurring."

Ironically, the woman set up a Facebook event called 'FB free for Chch' that anyone can join to get behind the action.