Two weeks after a terrorist used Facebook to broadcast live video while he massacred 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, the company has broken its silence in the country by publishing a letter from Sheryl Sandberg in the New Zealand Herald.

Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said the company is “exploring” placing restrictions on who can live stream video on Facebook, but did not announce any actual policy changes.

“All of us at Facebook stand with the victims, their families, the Muslim community and all of New Zealand,” she wrote. “Many of you have also rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the attack … We have heard feedback that we must do more – and we agree.”

The letter follows weeks of sustained criticism in New Zealand over Facebook executives’ lack of responsiveness to the grieving nation.

“It would be very difficult for you and your colleagues to overestimate the growing frustration and anger here at Facebook’s facilitation of and inability to mitigate the deep, deep pain and harm from the live-streamed massacre of our colleagues, family members and countrymen broadcast over your network,” privacy commissioner John Edwards wrote in a letter to Facebook executives following the massacre, according to the Herald.

“Your silence is an insult to our grief.”

A Herald opinion column published on 21 March challenged Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to “to explain how his company will prevent its platform being abused in future, or to look into the faces of victim’s families and explain why not”.

“If it had happened in America, Zuckerberg would be talking,” continued business writer Chris Keall. “Why is New Zealand any different?”

Zuckerberg still has not commented publicly on the attack, nor on Facebook’s role in amplifying the reach of the act of terror.

The potential restrictions on livestreaming would be based on “factors such as prior Community Standards violations”, Sandberg wrote. A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment on whether the Christchurch shooter would have been barred from live-streaming if such a policy had been in place, citing a request from New Zealand police “not to go into specifics” while the investigation continues.

Facebook is also “investing in research to build better technology to quickly identify edited versions of violent videos and images and prevent people from re-sharing these versions”, Sandberg wrote.

The company is also cracking down on hate groups in Australia and New Zealand, pledged to support four Kiwi mental health organizations, and voiced support for the recently announced royal commission that will investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Sandberg also touted Facebook’s decision, earlier this week, to reverse its previous policy and ban content that supports white nationalism and white separatism. The company had previously made a distinction between white supremacy, which it banned, and white nationalism, which it allowed, despite expert consensus that any such distinction is merely rhetorical.

Sandberg’s letter was also published on Instagram’s blog, and a company spokeswoman said all Facebook and Instagram users in New Zealand will receive a platform alert with a link to the op-ed.

