CANBERRA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has blocked access to eight websites hosting violent content from the Christchurch terror attacks.
According to the News Corp Australia on Monday, the latest action came after a unilateral move by Australian internet providers to ban 45 websites hosting the footage and the alleged killer's manifesto after the attack in March.
However, all but eight of those websites voluntarily removed the content. The remaining eight websites will be banned until they follow suit and remove the content.
The Christchurch attacks, in which Australian man Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people -- most of whom were praying at mosques, were live streamed on Facebook for 17 minutes and then shared millions of times.
It has prompted a major crackdown on the sharing of violent extremist content online by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Julie Inman Grant, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, said that in addition to prevent Australians from accessing the traumatizing content, it was important to block the websites to prevent the recruitment of other terrorists.
