Meta’s response to the recent attacks in Sydney

We share our deepest sympathies with the victims and their friends, families and communities who were impacted by the recent knife attacks in Sydney at Westfield Bondi Junction and the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.

While we are heartened that our services have provided a way for people to connect and find solace and support at this difficult time, Meta has also worked hard to protect the community from harmful content.

Whilst the two attacks were different, many aspects of our response were the same. Within an hour of each attack, we assembled a cross functional team across content policy, community operations, strategic response, law enforcement liaison, and other internal teams to share information, reach out to local stakeholders and partners, and work quickly to identify and respond to any content related to the attacks that was shared on our services.

At a high level, here is an overview of some of the work our dedicated teams undertook to be responsive to the Australian Government and act quickly to protect the Australian community from harmful content with these two situations:

• For both incidents, we reached out to key authorities to confirm that we were aware of the incidents and working to identify and act on any online components of the attacks, including the National Operations and State Service Centre at NSW, NSW Police State Intelligence Command, and the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.
• Our Australia specialist teams started to review and action any content related to the incidents reported by users that violated our policies and we used internal tools to surface all livesteams and block any copies of videos that depicted the attacks.
• We designated the Bondi Junction attack as multiple victim violence and the Wakeley attack as terrorism (the latter following the NSW Police Commissioner’s declaration of such), which under our policies means that in both cases we could act to remove the perpetrator’s accounts and any glorification or praise and support of the attackers or attacks.
• We identified the victims and law enforcement involved in the Bondi attacks and proactively monitored for any abusive content or content that would breach our bullying and harassment policies.
• When we received requests from family members of victims, we temporarily deactivated their accounts.
• For videos showing graphic footage of the immediate aftermath of the act, we applied a “mark as disturbing” interstitial. This is an overlay that is applied to content so that people are aware it may contain sensitive imagery or content before they click through. When we apply this overlay it also restricts the ability for users under 18 to view such content.
• Our fact checkers also fact-checked the allegations that misidentified the Bondi attacker — the fact check from Agence France-Press (AFP) was published here and the fact check from Australian Associated Press (AAP) is here. In addition, AAP fact checked claims that the Bondi attacks were a false flag event here and claims that mainstream media were biased in their reporting of the tragedy here. Once a content has been rated false by our fact checkers, we take action by reducing the distribution of identical and nearly identical content on our platforms, showing labels on top of the content, and removing them from recommendations.
• When we received the “Class 1 Removal Notice” from the eSafety Commissioner in relation to the Wakeley attack, we quickly responded to confirm that we had already been taking action in relation to the content that was the subject of the Notice.

We will continue to do everything reasonably possible to reduce the spread of misinformation or disturbing content. Our thoughts continue to be with the victims and communities impacted by these tragedies and we stand ready to continue to assist the Australian Government and the New South Wales Government as they respond and support people through the coming months.