The Christchurch shooter’s manifesto and live-feed video have been censored from many websites at the request of New Zealand police. They’ve been attempting to gather data on the users who have shared and discussed the shooter’s manifesto and the video of the shooting. One such location that caught the police’s attention was Kiwifarms, which is one of the few places that have discussed and shared the information about the shooter in an uncensored fashion.

Journalist Nick Monroe shared an e-mail online, as well as forwarded the e-mail from Kiwifarms’ administrator, from the New Zealand police department, where Detective Senior Sergeant, John Michael, reached out to the forum’s administrator on March 17th, 2019 to request Kiwifarms user data.

🚨🚨BREAKING: @nzpolice demand **USER INFORMATION** (“IP addresses, email addresses”) from Kiwi Farms regarding the New Zealand attack https://t.co/FHwUf95vGq USER.

INFORMATION.

FOR TALKING ABOUT IT.https://t.co/sgN0j1E9oe

THIS IS AN INFRINGEMENT OF CIVIL LIBERTIES ISSUE NOW pic.twitter.com/9CIUGe6roW — Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 17, 2019

I HAVE A COPY OF THE EMAIL

I CAN CONFIRM THIS IS REAL Kiwi Farms Administrator has provided me a forwarded copy of the DEMAND FOR USER INFORMATION from @nzpolice INFORMATION ABOUT USERS

WHO TALKED ABOUT IT pic.twitter.com/1h84L3W1vk — Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 17, 2019

The Kiwifarms administrator shared the e-mail on the forums, which read…

“Good afternoon “I am hoping that you can help us with an investigation the New Zealand Police are working on. “On 15 March 2019 there was a shooting in New Zealand with multiple fatalities at two mosques in the city of Christchurch. “The alleged offender in this matter is a […] “At around the time of the shooting there were a number of posts and links posted on kiwifarms.net <http://kiwifarms.net> relating to the shooting and […] “We would like to preserve any posts and technical data including IP addresses, email addresses etc linked to these posts pending a formal legal request . “Could you please advise what legal process you require for this request and also confirm preservation of the data requested pending legal process.”

The Kiwifarms administrator responded to the e-mail from the New Zealand police department, and promptly told them that he would not be complying with their request and that he would not be handing over the IP addresses, personal identifying information, or other privacy data of users, and that the police department was duly overstepping their bounds in order to censor the entire internet, writing…

“Is this a joke? I’m not turning over information about my users. The person responsible for posting the video and manifesto PDF is myself. ”I feel real bad for you guys, you’ve got a quiet nation and now this attack is going to be the first thing people think of for the next 10 years when they hear the name New Zealand, but you can’t do this. Tell your superiors they’re going to make the entire country and its government look like clowns by trying to censor the Internet. You’re a small, irrelevant island nation barely more recognizable than any other nameless pacific sovereignty. You do not have the clout to eradicate a video from the Internet and you do not have the legal reach to imprison everyone whose posted it. If anyone turns over to you the information they’re asking for they’re not only cowards, but they’re fucking idiots. […] “If you’re wondering, no. Kiwi Farms has nothing to do with New Zealand. Our name is a pointed jab at some of the mushmouthed autistic people we make fun of. Absolutely nothing about our community is NZ oriented. “And I don’t give a single solitary fuck what section 50 of your faggot law say about sharing your email. Fuck you and fuck your shithole country.”

Detective John Michael meekly responded by saying…

“Appreciate your quick response. “Will definitely consider what you have said.”

The exchange ended there, and Kiwifarms opted not to hand over the user data.

Even Republican GOP candidate for the 37th congressional district in Los Angeles, California, Rob Bassilian, chimed in to note bad it looks that the New Zealand police are trying to pilfer personal user information from forum board users.

Okay this is bad. — Ron Bassilian (R) (@Ron4California) March 17, 2019

Elsewhere, nearly every major web service is censoring information about the New Zealand shooting that isn’t coming from mainstream news media.

The entire YouTube search algorithm has been completely censored so that the only information being posted about the Christchurch shooting is from mainstream media.

Reddit has begun purging and banning certain sub-reddit communities, while places like Bitchute and Twitter are also censoring and removing information related to the shooting.

It’s not unlike the blackout that took place during the early days of #GamerGate, only this time it’s on a much larger, global scale and affecting nearly every major social media network.

The New Zealand police have been working overtime to prohibit people from reading the shooter’s 74-page manifesto, which is essentially a meme-culture inspired missive where he attributes Spyro 3 for helping him embrace nationalism, and points to Fortnite as the guide for helping him learn how to shoot.

The brunt of the manifesto reveals that ultimately he wanted to weaponize mainstream media in order to get them to use the shooting in order to create more societal fractures that would result in a race war. So far, the media has played into his hand doing everything he said he wanted them to do, including moving to legislate more strict gun laws.

Some people are calling the fruition of his manifesto “accelerationism”.

Regardless, the New Zealand police are intent on trying to censor as much of the information as possible to prevent the general public from accessing the manifesto or watching the video feed of the shooting.

(Thanks for the news tip Nick Monroe)

(Main image courtesy of New Zealand police department)