UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the Al Noor mosque, one of
two Muslim centers in the New Zealand city where a self-described white
supremacist killed 51 people in a March 15
shooting that the attacker live-streamed on Facebook. He warned hate speech was
spreading online `like wildfire` at a meeting with victims of the Christchurch
mosque shootings Tuesday, vowing the world body will lead efforts to extinguish
the problem.Guterres The UN chief is traveling the South Pacific to highlight
the impact of climate change but said he also wanted to show his support for
Christchurch’s Muslim community during Ramadan.`I know there are no words to
relieve the hurt and sorrow and pain, but I wanted to come here personally to
transmit love, support and total and complete admiration,` he said.He told
victims of the worst mass shooting in modern New Zealand history that there had
been `a dangerous upsurge in hatred` as social media was exploited to promote
bigotry.`Hate speech is spreading like wildfire in social media. We must
extinguish it,` the Portuguese diplomat said.`There is no room for hate speech
— online or offline.`He highlighted a previously announced plan for his special
adviser on genocide prevention Adama Dieng to combat online extremism.He said
Dieng’s mission was to `bring together a United Nations team to scale up our
response to hate speech and present a global plan of action.`His remarks come
as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who hosted Guterres when he
arrived in Auckland on Sunday, embarks on her own quest to tame social media in
Paris this week. She has been highly critical of social media giants in the
wake of the Christchurch killings, saying they should be `taking ownership and
responsibility over their platforms.`Ardern will co-host a meeting of world
leaders and tech firms to promote a `Christchurch call` aimed at curbing online
extremism.
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