By Toby Manhire for The Spinoff

The former NZ PM says the global policy boss for the online behemoth has contacted her saying he wants to visit NZ, following an angry backlash against the platform over its livestream of a mass terrorist murder at a Christchurch mosque. Toby Manhire reports.

Helen Clark has joined the chorus condemning Facebook and other online platforms after the terrorist attack that took 50 lives in Christchurch. Facebook had turned into a "monster", said Clark.

Asked for her response to the Facebook livestream of the murders in two Christchurch mosques, Clark was aghast. "Seventeen minutes of a killer doing his business. A mass murder. This is unthinkable. Is no one watching anything? I mean, really, unbelievable. Unbelievable."

Facebook had demonstrated an inability to self-regulate, she said, and following the atrocity in Christchurch, New Zealand could emerge as a trailblazer.

"I think countries are going to want governments to act. Ideally you'd have action at a global level, but negotiating treaties and conventions takes a very long time. It is an area that perhaps New Zealand could innovate in. New Zealand's got the world's attention right now for the wrong reasons. And for the good reason that the response has been appropriate.

"I think we'll be looked at with great interest about what we do in gun reform and around this issue in dealing with the publishers of outrageous material."

When Clark was in charge of New Zealand's security services, white-supremacist terrorism "wasn't an issue", she said.

"I think it's gained traction with social media. It's one of those monstrous elements that wouldn't have been seen. These people have been around, right? But they didn't really have a way to propagate their views… It's facilitated their interaction and linkages with each other. Just as it has for Isis and others."

Clark is no knee-jerk social media cynic. She is a voracious user of just about every platform imaginable.

"I love it. I see the potential to connect, to put ideas out there, make a comment, use your thought leadership position. It's got huge potential for good. But we'd like it to be eliminating the harm," she said.

The silence to date of Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman and CEO of the multibillion-dollar company, was hardly surprising, Clark said.

"He's very slow to say anything, whenever any of these issues arise. In the scheme of things, this is as bad as it gets. But there have been other issues such as Cambridge Analytica, and various other outrages which he was silent on for a long time."