New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern achieved her main aim in Paris, a signed ‘Christchurch Call’ agreement between 17 countries and also the major tech companies based in China. See: Tech companies, 17 Governments sign up to ‘Christchurch Call’
But in getting there Arden had a very busy day.
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern’s big day in Paris ends with her getting what she wanted
She held six one-on-one meetings, hosted two more large ones, gave two speeches and two press conferences.
The Prime Minister spent Wednesday in a whirlwind of events as she finalised the Christchurch Call, a set of non-binding commitments governments and tech companies are making to fight online extremism.
The pledge was made exactly two months after the terror attack in Christchurch, in which 51 people were murdered and the massacre livestreamed on Facebook.
Ardern sees this pledge as the second half of the immediate response to the attack, after banning the guns used in the attack within weeks.
One more step towards trying to make the country and the world safer. Obviously not all acts of terrorism will be prevented, and not all spreading of hate and violence online will be stopped, but it must be a move in the right direction – towards a more decent Internet and a more peaceful world.
It will need top be an ongoing effort. And going by the effort she put in so far, Ardern will do everything she can to achieve some level of success.
Her agenda in Paris on Wednesday:
The Prime Minister began her day with a swift bilateral meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the OECD Palace, the red carpet literally rolled out for royalty.
Right after that she hosted a tech roundtable with 30 or so representatives of the various tech companies signing on. The cavernous tapestried room, which had tables arranged in something much closer to a square than a circle, featured Ardern, several chief policy officers, and the co-founder of Wikipedia.
Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey was not present, but was due to meet Ardern at the next stop.
Dorsey is four years older than Ardern, but looked much younger as he slunk into the room to shake her hand, with wavy 2008-emo hair and a full beard.
After Dorsey, the Prime Minister and a bedraggled group of reporters following her finally arrived at the Élysées Palace where 250 local and world journalists had received accreditation to cover the main event.
Ardern was greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the door, who embraced her with a la bise – basically two quick kisses on the cheek, and asked her how she was…The two disappeared into the palace for a long lunch…
Next up was another bilateral meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Norway experienced a similar attack to New Zealand in 2011, but Solberg was not in office at that point.
Then came the proper meeting, the tech representative and world leaders all in one gilded room facing each other across a table. Ardern sat flanked by Macron and Senegal PM Mahammed Dionne. UK Prime Minister Theresa May sat beside the European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker on one end of the table – one imagines the pair were just pleased to talk about anything but Brexit, even if it was extremist terrorist content.
A karanga was delivered and Ardern then spoke at length about the need for tech companies to take responsibility for the huge power they now wield.
“I know that none of you want your platforms to perpetuate and amplify terrorism and extremist violence. But these platforms have grown at such pace, with such popularity, that we are all now dealing with consequences you may not have imagined when your company was just a start-up. Your scale and influence brings a burden of responsibility,” Ardern said.
When the closed-meeting finally ended, Ardern and Macron emerged for the kind of press conference where four questions take up 30 minutes.
A short stroll away from the palace, at a building Napoleon built for his sister, Ardern had a brief meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, followed by another press conference for the itchy New Zealand journalists, who had breakfast shows that were just coming on air.
So a very busy day for Ardern, who was making the most of her visit to Paris where a number of world leaders and tech company representatives had gathered.
And from the coverage I saw, Ardern acquitted her aims with aplomb, representing Aotearoa New Zealand very well. She keeps doing very well on the international stage.
Widespread praise makes pride in Ardern’s performances obvious, despite the efforts of a small number who show their displeasure regardless of what Ardern achieves or does.
People who rise to be very good leaders are able to please most of the people most of the time.
If her Government here in New Zealand can get up to speed and deliver on some significant policies, whoever leads National will be powerless to compete, and relatively powerless after next year’s election.
From the Beehive:
- Christchurch Call to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist online content adopted
French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have led a group of world leaders, tech companies and organisations to adopt a pledge that seeks to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online to stop the internet being used as a tool for terrorists. - Jacinda Ardern’s Christchurch Call opening statement
On the 15th of March – exactly two months ago today – a terrorist entered mosques in the city of Christchurch and massacred 51 members of New Zealand’s Muslim community while they were peacefully at prayer. - Jacinda Ardern’s Tech for Good Summit speech
The Christchurch Call to action, which was agreed today, has a simple premise. That tech companies have both enormous power, and enormous responsibility. And so do governments.
