NZ PM vows never to utter name of alleged mosque gunman

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed never to utter the name of the man responsible for the mosque massacres as she opened a sombre session of parliament with a message of peace to Muslims.

"He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand," Ardern said while promising that she would deprive the man who killed 50 people in Christchurch of the publicity he craved.

"He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety," she told assembled lawmakers of the 28-year-old Australian accused of the mass shooting.

"That is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless."

"I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them."

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a self-described white supremacist, has been charged with murder.

In a special meeting of parliament on Tuesday, Ardern used the Arabic greeting "Al-Salaam Alaikum", which in English means "peace be upon you".

The prime minister called on social media platforms to do more to combat terror, after the gunman in Christchurch live-streamed his attack on Facebook.

"We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of the place where they are published," she said. "They are the publisher. Not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit no responsibility."

Facebook said on Tuesday that the video was viewed fewer than 200 times during the live broadcast, and about 4,000 times in total before it was removed. The social media company said it removed more than 1.5 million copies of the video in the first 24 hours after the incident, 1.2 million of which were blocked while being uploaded

She closed her address by noting that "on Friday, it will be a week since the attack, members of the Muslim community will gather for worship on that day. Let us acknowledge their grief as they do."