Dubai company Transguard on Wednesday said it had fired an employee who has since been deported after he purportedly put up a celebratory Facebook post about the March 15 terror attack in New Zealand, Gulf News reported. A 28-year-old Australian citizen killed 50 people when he opened fire at two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch city.
The United Arab Emirates firm said it has zero-tolerance for the “inappropriate use of social media. “As a result this individual was immediately terminated and turned over to the authorities to face justice,” Managing Director Greg Ward said.
The company did not share the alleged comments or details about the employee’s identity, Reuters reported.
UAE government officials are yet to comment on the matter, the news agency said. The government, however, has condemned the attack and expressed its condolences to the victims’ families.
Social media and violence
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had called for a united global front against social media being used for violence. The Christchurch attacker had live streamed the shooting on Facebook, for which the company faced major flak. Videos of the attack had gone viral immediately after it was live on Facebook. Ardern had said that while the incident occurred in New Zealand and that her focus was on its citizens, the problem of social media being misused needs “to confront collectively”.
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