NZ declares massacre video “objectionable,” arrests people who shared it

I (and judging by the torrent trackers, thousands upon thousands of others) viewed the video. I can only speak for myself, but I did so precisely because the government cracked down so hard on it. I have never viewed videos of any other mass casualty attack, save for historical events like the 9/11 attacks. It's like Rushdie's The Satanic Verses: one way to ensure that lots of people want to view something is to try to ban it. The fact that doing so in a liberal democracy like New Zealand could land me 14 years in prison is orwellian.

I can speak from direct experience that the video is awful and has essentially no redeeming value save for serving as proof that these events occurred. But if our goal is to dissuade people from watching the video I do wonder whether threatening people with prison sentences is the best way to go about it. General sensibilities and removal from major platforms will prevent people who don't want to see it from seeing it. Those that do want to see it will be able to do so regardless of government censorship with a VPN and a torrent client. The ban had moved a lot of people from the former category to the latter.

Not to mention this censorship feeds into extremists' belief that the attack was staged, say, to prompt the government to enact more restrictive gun laws. This was one of the reasons why the Sandy Hook shooting had a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding it.