CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has received death threats on social media. Police are investigating death threats to Jacinda Ardern on social media. A Twitter post containing a photo of a gun and captioned, “You are next” was sent to the Prime Minister.
The post had been up for more than 48 hours before the sender’s Twitter account was suspended before 4 pm after it was reported by various people. Another post tagged to Ardern and NZ Police and had the same photo with “next it’s you.”
I’ve just reported some death threats against our Prime Minister, complete with pictures of guns, that were tweeted 48 hours ago – if you wouldn’t mind sorting those out while you’re here standing with us.
— Aimee Gulliver (@aimeegulliver) March 22, 2019
The suspended account contained anti-Islamic content and white supremacist hate speech. A police spokeswoman said, “Police are aware of a comment made on Twitter and are making inquiries.”
The Prime Minister’s office and Twitter were contacted for comment. The posts were pointed out to Twitter itself after the social networking giant tweeted a message of support following the two Christchurch mosque attacks last Friday which left 50 people dead.
Twitter Public Policy’s tweet – promoted by Twitter Australia – read: “Kia Kaha. We stand together with New Zealand.” The message came at 1.48 pm, closely after the nationwide two-minute silence for the mosque victims.
(Agencies)
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