The Governance and Administration committee has been hearing from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet about what progress has been made on the Christchurch Call.

Estimates Hearings are underway across the select committees, a time when government ministers and chief executives front up to be queried about pretty much anything.

For example, how the government is responding to the challenge presented by violent extremist online activities was under the microscope as representatives of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet appeared before the Governance and Administration committee this week.

Paul Ash is the Prime Minister's special representative on cyber and digital stuff, and co-ordinator of the Christchurch Call, which was a call to action to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online, following following terror attacks on mosques in Christchurch in 2019. Those who have committed to the initiative include 55 governments, 10 major major tech companies (with more reportedly coming on board soon) and dozens of participants from civil society working on the problem.

Ash was asked by the committee what progress has been made on the Christchurch Call, and what measurable outcomes could be identified.

"I guess the key things that have come out of that work to date have been a focus on crisis response and ensuring that as and when terrorist attacks happen that have a significant online dimension, collectively industry and governments working with civil society are able to respond more quickly, and to minimise the harm done directly to the individuals who are subject of the attack but more broadly by promulgation of that material," Ash explained.

That's seen industry develop a new set of crisis response protocols under the Call. One of them, industry-led, is called the Content Incident Protocol, which the Global Internet Forum for Counter-Terrorism manages.

Swift response

"When an incident happens - and perhaps the most recent example was the attack in Buffalo, New York, last month - the presenting company would flag that to the Global Internet Forum for Counter-Terrorism. It then works with companies through a range of online channels to manage incoming information about what's being seen online and (tries to) manage that down."

In the Buffalo case, online content was flagged in the minute before the attack started, Ash told the committee. There were two more flags immediately after the attack began. Then the content was taken down two minutes into the attack. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details