Footage of the horrific effects of the truck attack on the French city of Nice has been circulating on social media, and if you can avoid it, you should.
At least 84 people are now said to have died in the rampage and 50 more have been injured after a lorry drove into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day.
The reality is that this video isn’t just graphic, it doesn’t just show the aftermath of the terror – it’s a cold, hard look at the mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters that were brutally killed in a pointless attack.
The footage, showing bloody, bruised, and broken bodies strewn on the road is horrifically disrespectful to the victims and their families – some of whom can be seen sitting beside them in the video.
While no group has so far claimed responsibility, if a terrorist group is, in fact, behind the attack, this is exactly what they want. They want us to watch it, to spread fear and panic, and ultimately, to spread their message – that they believe they will win.
Social media has unfortunately done just that and shared it countless times.
The video, which seems to have originated from News This Second, was first shared on Twitter. In a statement posted to their account, the news agency said they decided to publish the footage to help their ‘audience understand what happened in a way no words could’.
And while the comments are mixed, many agree that the footage is disrespectful to those affected.
Others believe we need to see footage like this:
While the argument has its points, it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) take a graphic video of dead and possibly still unidentified bodies on the street for people to realise that this attack was devastating.
Facebook has also pulled the video from its Newswire page after comments criticising it flooded in by the hundreds.
And it’s not just social media. Yesterday, the Daily Mail dedicated an entire article to photos and videos of those killed, including one of a dead child and her doll.
The Daily Mail has not only come under fire for showing images that disrespect the victims and their family and friends, but also for claiming the attack was ISIS’s doing, despite no group so far claiming responsibility.
But the graphic video is where we have gone wrong.
Let’s not play into the attacker’s own sick propoganda or further distress families and friends who are already mourning a horrific attack on their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts and uncles.
If you can avoid this horrific video, please do.
