Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, has called for a global meeting to discuss measures to stop the livestreaming of violence. It’s set for this week in Paris. Ardern is co-chairing the Paris meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

New Zealand recently was the scene of another horrific mass murder, this time of Muslims. This massacre was planned by the killers to be beamed to the world on social media as they carried it out.

In the world of instantaneous broadcasts, the massacre was viewed, as the killers intended, millions of times. Social media sites attempted to shut it down, but humans can act only so fast—not nearly as fast as the internet.

It’s a safe bet that virtually everybody who downloaded that video did so by choice.
Whatever the legal changes, or lack of, to the practice of livestreaming, people watch such scenes by choice.

An unwatched video loses its power. Ultimately, it’s our choice to watch or not.