New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern aims to limit spread of hate

New Zealand’s prime minister said she will do all she can to stop a man accused of killing 51 Muslim worshippers from spreing his mess of hate at his trial, while she hopes artificial intelligence will one day stop such attacks from being brocast online. In an interview with Associated Press on Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described how she me decisions after March 15 attacks at two Christchurch mosques, including introducing sweeping gun reforms and starting a global discussion on keeping violent extremism from internet.

Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 29, has been charged with 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism in attacks and goes on trial next June. Ardern said she thought Tarrant would try to use trial to promote his views.

“It’s clear that a part of this individual’s motivation is creating a platform for himself. I think that’s absolutely clear,” she said. “And I think every opportunity we can to deprive alleged terrorist of that should be utilized.”

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She said she was limited in what she could do but was encourd by pledge of New Zealand’s major media outlets to avoid promoting white supremacist ideology when covering trial. Ardern said she stood by her decision to never speak alleged gunman’s name.

“If someone’s motivated by infamy, n you deprive m of it,” she said.

gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook. Ardern said she hoped artificial intelligence could be used to stop future attacks from being brocast, and that everybody h a responsibility to prevent such brocasts from continuing to happen.

“Even Facebook have me moves around way that y utilize livestreaming and who can access it,” she said. “In future, I believe we can actually use AI techlogy increasingly.” Ardern said she was traveling in a van on outskirts of rth Island town of New Plymouth when she first heard about attacks.

“ scale of it and magnitude of it took some time to come to grips with,” she said. Farid Ahmed, whose wife Husna was killed in attack on Al or mosque, said New Zealanders were initially confused about what to think. But a week later at Muslim prayers in Christchurch, Ardern gave a nationally televised speech that Ahmed said united people with three simple words: “We are one.”

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“It was so beautiful, in just one sentence,” Ahmed said.

Ardern said she still h piece of paper where she’d hurriedly written her sentiments after attack, words that would later resonate around world.

“To me, it should have been most unextraordinary thing to say. It was just my instinct around way New Zealanders would be feeling,” she said. “Yes, this was an attack, very explicitly on our Muslim community. But y were our Muslim community. I just felt that needed to be said straight away.”

Ardern said body at time was really analyzing what y were doing or saying, y were just responding, often with great compassion. She said everybody felt emotional at time but she couldn’t let that get in way of doing her job.

“I did best I could at making sure that I didn’t let anyone down. I needed to keep going and keep focused and keep working on behalf of those families,” she said. “But yeah, of course, undeniably it h an impact on me.”

Ardern vowed to change New Zealand’s gun laws after attacks, and less than a month later all but one of country’s 120 lawmakers voted in favor of banning assault weapons.

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“In my view, we are just total pragmatists,” Ardern said. “So when we saw scale, and magnitude, and impact of se s of weapons utilized in this way, even those who legitimately hold weapons, said ‘Actually, we don’t need those. Those don’t need to stay.’”

A gun buyback scheme that ends later this month has seen 37,000 newly banned weapons turned over to police, although some estimates indicate re could be many thousands of banned guns that haven’t been turned in. Ardern said she felt buyback h been a success.

“Those are tens of thousands of guns that are longer in circulation,” she said. “And that is a good thing.”

In a speech after attacks, Ahmed told a crowd of about 20,000 people in Christchurch that he forgave man who killed his wife. He said he didn’t want to have a heart burning with anger and hatred. Ardern said Ahmed was an extraordinary man. Asked if she could ever forgive gunman, Ardern turned focus back on those who were at mosques.

“ one is more central to what happened on 15th of March than those who were directly affected,” Ardern said. “So it’s t for me to give.”