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The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, upstate New York, where at least ten people were murdered. (Photo by John Normile/Getty Images)
The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, upstate New York, where at least ten people were murdered. (Photo by John Normile/Getty Images)

PoliticsMay 15, 2022

NZ censor bans Buffalo terrorist ‘manifesto’ that cites Christchurch attack as inspiration

The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, upstate New York, where at least ten people were murdered. (Photo by John Normile/Getty Images)
The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, upstate New York, where at least ten people were murdered. (Photo by John Normile/Getty Images)

The white supremacist document, believed to be that of the man who killed at least 10 people in the US this morning, has been banned by NZ’s censor.

A white supremacist “manifesto” believed to be written by the 18-year-old who stands accused of opening fire in a Buffalo supermarket, killing at least 10 people, has been banned by New Zealand’s censor. The publication, posted online two days ago, makes a number of references to the 2019 mass murders in Christchurch mosques and the terrorist convicted of perpetrating them.

“The killer says in his document that he was inspired by the March 15 Mosque killer. It has become a trend for terrorists, in particular white supremacist killers, to issue these kinds of publications to encourage others to follow their lead,” said the acting chief censor, Rupert Ablett-Hampson, in a statement. The Christchurch terrorist’s “manifesto”, entitled “The Great Replacement”, was banned by the New Zealand censor shortly after the March 2019 attack. 

The document, which runs to 180 pages and was posted online two days ago, espouses at length the falsehoods of the “great replacement” theory, a far-right set of beliefs premised on the baseless claim that groups are attempting to obliterate white people. The author also says he was a regular user of 4Chan, the site frequented by the Christchurch terrorist. Authorities told US media: “We are aware of the manifesto allegedly written by the suspect and we’re working to definitively confirm that he is the author.”

In the “manifesto”, which is replete with anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist slogans, the convicted Christchurch terrorist’s livestream of the mosque attacks and his manifesto are described as instrumental, while the individual is credited as the “particular person” that “radicalised” him. Like the Christchurch attack, the Buffalo attack was livestreamed. 

The manifesto uses the final slogan of the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto in an image that fills the opening page of his own. Entire passages appear to have been cut and paste from one to the other. 

“There is widespread coverage of this mass shooting and the fact that the killer produced publications and we urge New Zealanders not to seek these out,” said Ablett-Hampson. “This decision means it is an offence to possess or distribute these publications. People who have downloaded this document, or printed it, should destroy any copies.”

He added: “We understand most people in Aotearoa reading such publications would not be supportive of these hateful messages but these kind of publications are not intended for most people. We have seen how they can impact individuals who are on the pathway to violence.”

The “terrible act” witnessed in upstate New York, and the document linking it to the Christchurch terrorist attack, “shows yet again why we as a society need to get in front of these issues”, said Aliya Danzeisen of the NZ Islamic Women’s Council. “Social media plays an extraordinary role in how people are navigating the challenges they are facing.”

The incident provided tragic confirmation of the importance of studying the online roots of such atrocities, she said, noting the decision by coroner to include these considerations in the scope of her inquiry into the New Zealand mosque killings. “If we don’t get around this, more and more lives will be lost. [The coroner’s] decision relating to scope and the inclusion of social media therein will allow New Zealand and possibly the world a step in the right direction, by allowing us to look into online aspects that may have influenced the Christchurch terrorist. In turn, this could help all of us learn how to be proactive and prevent future similar deaths,” she told The Spinoff.

The Christchurch attack has previously been cited as an inspiration for attacks on a mosque in Norway and a synagogue in California. In the latter case, the New Zealand mosque terrorist was described as “a catalyst for me personally” by the assailant. The false claims of the “Great Replacement” theory, which dates back to the 19th century but was popularised by French writer Renaud Camus in 2011, have been identified as motivational in a range of other attacks. 

Research published by the Washington-based Center for Countering Hate last month found social media platforms had failed to address 89% of posts identified in its study that promoted the Great Replacement theory. That was despite the major social media outlets declaring in a joint statement after the Christchurch mosque attacks that they would be “resolute in our commitment to ensure we are doing all we can to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to terrorist violence”.

The Buffalo attack was livestreamed on Twitch, a platform typically used by gamers. In a statement, a spokesperson for Twitch said it had removed the video. “Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents. The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content,” they said.

Amazon was among the signatories to the Christchurch Call who pledged to take measures “seeking to prevent the upload of terrorist and violent extremist content and to prevent its dissemination … including its immediate and permanent removal”. Other signatories included Facebook (now Meta), where the Christchurch mosque attack was livestreamed, as well as Twitter, Google and YouTube.

The New Zealand Royal Commission into the mosque attacks found that “by January 2017 the individual had a terrorist attack in mind”, and that “when the individual came to live in New Zealand on 17 August 2017, it was with a fully-developed terrorist ideology based on his adoption of the Great Replacement theory and his associated beliefs that immigration, particularly by Muslim migrants, into western countries is an existential threat to western society and that the appropriate response (at least for him) was violence.”

The publication had been called in by the Classifications Office and an interim decision reached this morning, said Ablett-Hampson. “A final classification decision will be made in due course, it’s important to make this interim decision so the public is aware that this material is objectionable under New Zealand law.”

An 18-year-old New York state man has been charged in Buffalo City Court on one count of murder in the first degree. He was remanded to custody without bail. 

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Scenes from Channel 7 as Anthony Albanese debated Scott Morrison. Image: Tina Tiller
Scenes from Channel 7 as Anthony Albanese debated Scott Morrison. Image: Tina Tiller

PoliticsMay 12, 2022

What I learned watching Australia’s ‘Final Showdown’ election debate

Scenes from Channel 7 as Anthony Albanese debated Scott Morrison. Image: Tina Tiller
Scenes from Channel 7 as Anthony Albanese debated Scott Morrison. Image: Tina Tiller

Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese were urged to swap acrimony for friendliness in a contest that resembled a vicar debating a robot, writes Toby Manhire.

After a second encounter so savage and unsporting they should have checked their pockets for yellow sandpaper, the moderator for the final election debate in the Australian election campaign opened up by exhorting Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese to keep it bloody civil. “This might be the most crucial hour in the political lives of these contenders,” said Seven News political editor Mark Riley, setting the scene for the Final Showdown. “Gentlemen, we know you’re not friends, but can we be friendly tonight? We want you to engage, but not disrupt each other.” Watching in New Zealand, at a quarter past 11pm, all I could see was dance boss Barry Fife in Strictly Ballroom: “There are no new steps! I unequivocally state there are no new steps for the Pan Pacific Grand Prix.”

The two gentlemen – both in dark blue suits, both in their 50s, both bespectacled – began with two-minute stump speeches, culminating in terrifying time’s-up music straight out of The Weakest Link. The pitches were clear from the off: keep me as prime minister, said Liberal leader Morrison, or risk everything with this chump who struggles to remember facts; if you think things are shit, let me tell you, things could be shitter. Labor rival Albanese countered: I’m fine, actually, and it’s time for a change, an important change, but don’t freak out, not too much change. 

Morrison, who revels in argy-bargy, had found a way to keep that instinct in check: behave as though the other guy isn’t there at all. All night, he stared straight down the barrel, into the living rooms of the nation. Even with 2,000km of ocean between us he managed to make me feel deeply uncomfortable. He was a talking point vending machine, so expertly programmed that every answer filled every available second. Only when Albo was talking did ScoMo look troubled, contorting his jaw to stave off the dreaded resting smirk face.

Like a dad turning magic tricks at his kid’s birthday party, Albanese fumbled a gold coin from a hiding place and held it aloft, to show the people at home what a dollar looks like. “The idea that one dollar, one dollar, Scott just spoke about the strength of the economy that he said is there, the idea that those heroes of the pandemic,” he said, putting down the coin and giving up on the sentence. He was defending his earlier comments backing an increase in the minimum wage by a dollar an hour. Morrison was repulsed, sickened for Australia at the sight of his rival’s profligacy and failure to leave all that to the Fair Work Commission. He looked like he was about to puke. Albanese, who is reminded at every turn about the time he couldn’t remember the unemployment or official interest rate, was a “loose unit when it comes to the economy”, Morrison said, in a line that more than any sums up the Liberals’ argument for another term.

Every circuit in Morrison’s head is at this point devoted to not smirking.

Morrison did not produce a lump of coal. On climate change he was a joke – torn between his carbon-puffing Coalition partners the Nationals and the hazards of the teal independents, all he could do was make some noises about technology. Both were steadfast in their commitment to continuing Australia’s shameful policy on “boat people” and offshore detention. 

The Labor leader’s attack lines, meanwhile, were eerily similar to the New Zealand National Party’s criticisms of Jacinda Ardern. People might say “thanks for everything you did in the pandemic”, but that wasn’t enough, said Albanese. And by the way, he added, the vaccine rollout was too slow, as was the procuring and distribution of RATs. On the economy, clumsiness and indifference had created a cost-of-living crisis for ordinary people “doing it tough out there”. The cost-of-living crisis was a global thing, countered Morrison, they’d provided relief for families, they’d cut fuel tax; and Australia had done better than, say, New Zealand. 

What passes for a ‘pub’ in Queensland, apparently.

“All they have is abuse and scare campaigns, fear campaigns,” charged Albanese, and that’s hard to argue with. But it seemed beyond him to paint a picture of how Labor might make Australia better and brighter. Morrison tried eagerly, but fruitlessly, to fish out another flub on the economy from Albanese, searching for his version of John Key’s famous 2011 “show me the money” moment, a debate line so good it inspired the motion picture Jerry Maguire 15 years earlier.

Albanese had edged it, came the verdict from the undecided voters in marginal seat pubs, where Seven had installed cameras and ballot boxes, and treated the results from a handful of randoms with the reverence of election night numbers. “Well done Australia out there in pub land,” said one commentator on the official post-debate panel. “A convincing win for Anthony Albanese,” said another. 

As far as debates go it was tolerable enough. Australia was not disgraced. The ground was covered. But good luck finding even a breath of inspiration. As Albo-versus-ScoMo ticked through midnight, I felt like I was watching a squabble between a sitcom vicar and a smug robot.

There was more charisma in this montage of the pubs than either man managed to muster all night.

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