Facebook provides details on New Zealand attack footage

Facebook has said a live broadcast of last week's Christchurch attacks was viewed fewer than 200 times, as the firm faces growing criticism for failing to block the footage.

On Friday, a gunman live-streamed for 17 minutes an attack on two mosques that killed 50 people.

Facebook said the video was viewed 4,000 times in total before it was removed.

Social media firms have struggled to stop the spread of copies of the video.

In the wake of the shooting, several world leaders have called on social media companies to take more responsibility for the extremist material posted on their platforms.

Despite the original video being taken down, it was quickly replicated and shared widely on other platforms, including YouTube and Twitter.

In a statement on Monday, Facebook provided new details about the footage, including that the live broadcast was viewed fewer than 200 times.

Facebook said the first user report on the original video came in 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended. Before it was alerted to the video, a user had posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site.

Facebook had earlier said it deleted more than 1.5 million copies of the video on the first day after the incident. It said 1.2 million of those copies were blocked while being uploaded.

Social media firms' handling of offensive content has been criticized.

Australia's leader Scott Morrison expressed concern over the "unrestricted role" of internet technologies in terrorist attacks.

Jacinda Ardern also said on Tuesday that social media firms needed to do more to combat terror.

In the wake of the mosque shootings, Westpac NZ said it had suspended all advertising on social media networks including Facebook "until further notice".

"We will be engaging with social media companies about the publishing of harmful content," the bank said in a statement on Twitter.