JUNE NEWSLETTER

Kia ora koutou 

Just as we were putting together this month's newsletter, Minister Jan Tinetti announced our new Chief Censor! We're very happy to share this news that we will be welcoming Caroline Flora to the role from 20 July. Congratulations on the appointment Caroline!

The past month has been a complex time for the Office, with staff needing to quickly respond to footage and a manifesto relating to a massacre in Buffalo, New York, whilst maintaining business-as-usual classification work. Our Deputy Rupert Ablett-Hampson continues as Acting Chief Censor until Caroline starts.  

Our newsletters generally talk about topics like sex, drugs, and the media content landscape. Our aim is to have difficult conversations and shine a light on ways to reduce harm for New Zealanders. If you know someone who should receive these updates, please share our newsletter or encourage them to subscribe here. Be sure to follow our socials too.

#WatchTogether #Mātakitahi #TalkTogether #Kōrerotahi

#Mātakitahi #WatchTogether #Kōrerotahi #TalkTogether 

Our Youth Advisory Report looks back at the mahi of 2021

Our latest annual Youth Advisory Report details the collaboration of the past 12 months between our Youth Advisory Panel and the Office.

Some of the highlights from our shared mahi include real world opportunities for members of the Panel, discussions about the impact of offensive language, and campaign contributions such as our collaborative The Bare Facts 'nude' campaign with Netsafe. 

The full report is available online now

Last word from David out of Washington

Our (now former) Chief Censor David Shanks attended a Global Summit to Address Online Harms and Misinformation in May hosted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in Washington D.C.

He spoke with candor, self-admittedly 'uncensored' about the role of Chief Censor in Aotearoa New Zealand. His speech came shortly after early reports of the Buffalo school shooting and the weight of this tragedy can be seen and heard in David's emotive speech to the summit attendees.

He touches on the role of censorship in New Zealand, and the challenge for the team of wading through the 'digital sewers' of illegal material submitted, and about fundamental architectural issues of social media information dissemination that need a new framework. 

He spoke alongside representatives from the US, UK, Australia and the EU, as well as civil society leaders such as Rashad Robinson from Color of Change, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa, and many others at the forefront of campaigning for change. 

It was the start of a discussion on how to build a collective roadmap for change: a conversation that must continue in the face of the growing threat of online hate, radicalistion and lies that motivate terrible acts in our communities. 

Watch David's full speech online 

Buffalo 'manifesto' + livestream permanently banned

Following the attack in Buffalo, New York on 14 May 2022, in which ten people were killed, the Office issued interim decisions banning both the livestream video of the shooting and the manifesto of the attacker. Those decisions by the Office have now been finalised with permanent decisions issued.

“The livestream video and accompanying ‘manifesto’ promote the infliction of extreme violence and cruelty on innocent people going about their daily lives,” said Rupert Ablett-Hampson, Acting Chief Censor.

Following the Office's classifications the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP) has now included the material in their Inclusion Policy. The TCAP will now alert tech companies when the Buffalo attack perpetrator’s manifesto or livestream is found on their platforms.

"This will be alongside the Norway attacker’s manifesto and material produced by the Christchurch attack perpetrator, all material which has been previously banned by democratic governments and whose authors have been referenced as inspiration in the Buffalo attacker’s manifesto." — TCAP 

Read the full news item about our decision on our website

Speaker series 2022: Dr Tara's talk

We invited Dr Tara Kirk Sell to talk about her work on health-related misinformation and disinformation on 5 May. Dr Sell is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security and an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She discussed the economic costs of misinformation in the US context and potential policy approaches to improve preparedness and response to public health emergencies. Taking misinformation and disinformation campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, Dr Sell underscored the need for a large-scale policy change that brings together all stakeholders, increases public resilience, promotes factual information and controls misleading content and sources. 

Why did Top Gun: Maverick get this rating?

M: Violence and offensive language

Tom Cruise returns as Pete Mitchell AKA Maverick, one of the Navy’s top pilots going on 30 years of service. He is forced to confront the ghosts of his past whilst training graduates for a special assignment.

This film was cross-rated by the Film and Video Labelling Body and received an M with warnings for violence and offensive language. Read our Quick Take for a breakdown of the rating here.

Why did The Northman get this rating?

R16: Graphic violence, cruelty, animal cruelty, sexual material 

A Viking prince (played by Alexander Skarsgård) seeks to avenge the murder of his father (Ethan Hawke), save his mother (Nicole Kidman) and regain his birthright. He meets Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) who vows to help him along the way.

A new classification label was created for this film. It’s the first film in New Zealand to have the combination of graphic violence, cruelty, animal cruelty, and sexual material content warnings. Read our Quick Take on the rating here. 

Because our work involves a broad knowledge of the vast online landscape, we consume a lot of media in the office. Here are just a few of the things we’ve found relevant and informative over the past month. Take a break, with these media lunch items. 

Terrorists read your articles, too: How to report on manifestos (Logically)

Analysis: False information is so out of hand that it should be a national security issue (NZ Herald)

'Tectonic shift': How Parliament protest supercharged NZ's misinfodemic (NZ Herald)

Buffalo might never have happened if online hate had been tackled after Christchurch (The Guardian)