Several videos circulated on social media of the attack by a gunman who twice fired a homemade double-barreled weapon at Abe. Some only show the moments before and after the attack, while others show both shots.
Abe, who stepped down in 2020, was shot during a speech, flown to hospital and later pronounced dead. Police have arrested the suspected shooter at the scene.
Twitter said its enforcement teams were working to address “harmful content” related to the attack by “proactively removing material” that violates its rules, including restrictions on sensitive media, including graphic violence.
Twitter urged users to flag potentially sensitive material from the attack so it can take action. Videos of the attack were easy to find on Twitter many hours after the attack.
Meta said it removed videos depicting the moment of the attack and disabled the suspect’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked by the passing of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe,” Meta said in a prepared statement.
“We do not and will not tolerate violent behavior on our platform. To keep our platform a safe place to connect, we are working to remove all offending content related to the incident,” it said.
Meta said it was taking action as part of its policy on dangerous persons, and that it continues to label photos of the attack as “disturbing”.
YouTube said its systems are paying attention to videos linked to the attack from “authoritative sources” such as news organizations, the video-sharing site said, adding that it will remove all content that violates its rules, including a ban on violent acts. or graphic content.
TikTok said it is working to quickly “identify content, accounts and hashtags related to this tragic incident” and remove all content and accounts that break the rules.
