The world's been figuring out how companies like Facebook should be regulated, after the Christchurch shooter was allowed to livestream the attack on the platform. Photo / Getty Images.

NZ isn't powerless to social media companies - expert

Author: Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2019, 6:35AM

A media expert says New Zealand could have more power over social media companies - if it wasn't working from a baseline that's decades out of date.

The world's been figuring out how companies like Facebook should be regulated, after the Christchurch shooter was allowed to livestream the attack on the platform.

Victoria University's Peter Thompson told Kate Hawkesby we could easily set up an independent regulator - but we'd need to give it some new rules to work from.

"We are still working on the basis largely, of regulations for traditional media that are 20 or 30 years old and I think there is an urgent need to review that."

He said if we wanted to set up an independent social media regulator, it wouldn't be powerless.

"We could look at the dissemination of content, on internet access to social media websites, potentially on advertising expenditure, so these are all sorts of levers that potentially a regulator could pull in New Zealand."