First up don't forget to call up, complain, demand they ban facebook/youtube/twitter and either cancel your account or demand compensation if cancelling is not viable.

Full official statement: https://exchange.telstra.com.au/blocking-websites-hosting-footage-christchurch/ / https://archive.fo/wdWTw

Blocking websites hosting footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack

by Nikos Katinakis

We have moved to temporarily block a number of websites that continue to host footage of Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch. We understand this may cause inconvenience for some legitimate users of these sites but these are extraordinary circumstances and they required an extraordinary response.

We appreciate that it is necessary to ensure free speech is carefully balanced against protecting the community – but with these sites continuing to host disturbing content we feel it is the right thing to do to block them.

These are shocking events and the idea that this footage could in some way be used to incite or support hate is a sickening thought. We will continue to do whatever we can to assist and to support a diverse and inclusive community.

Twitter shitstorm: https://mobile.twitter.com/Telstra_news/status/1107526963583844353

An email was sent to Telstra employees around 10am this morning with the above statement and the full list of blocked websites which they would not tell me other than confirming voat and one person said 4chan. The list contains "more than 30, less than 100 websites".

I was told I am not allowed to speak on behalf Voat.co ("Do not put words in the mouth of voat.co, I'm sure they shared it"), but they implied there may be an avenue for @Puttitout to make the case to unblock Voat on the basis of being incorrectly targeted as the list supposedly is for sites hosting the video and voat does not host any video.

Lots of suggestions that the banhammer will be lifted tomorrow. Staff were not trained for how to deal with the influx of call on this subject. They were supposed by the calls. All they know is what was in the email. They are waiting for an update. They don't even know how to escalate these complaints.

The department knows how/why the sites were chosen do not speak to the public. This was not a directive of government but Telstra's own initiative "for national security purposes".

They "will not block important sites [used for] communication purposes" such as Gmail or facebook or reddit(!).

Will update list of blocked websites if goats want to help out:

• Voat.co

• 4Chan

• Bitchute