Becoming civic actors

Here the Christchurch Call to Action is set in two contexts: the history of the livestreaming of violent events and the argument of technology companies that they are mere relayers of user-generated content. The second of these contexts is parlayed into an argument that technology companies should be seen as having the same responsibilities to the societies they operate in as all other large corporate actors. Despite being expressed at the international level with states as its audience, the response to the Christchurch Call will be, by structural necessity, at the domestic level. The call opens up an opportunity for technology companies to design and embed digital ethics in the societies in which they operate. This chapter closes by examining how this might be achieved.