AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes quits Facebook

In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens in New York's Times Square. AP

By Jung Min-ho

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernande

AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes has closed his Facebook account, citing too much “hate” being transmitted on social media after the live-streaming of the mass shooting in New Zealand.

Fernandes, who had 670,000 followers, said on Twitter Sunday that Facebook should “clean up” after videos of the recent New Zealand mosque attacks were uploaded to the platform.

“Facebook could have done more to stop some of this. I myself have been a victim of so many fake bitcoin and other stories,” he wrote.

“The amount of hate that goes on in social media sometimes outweighs the good.”

For at least 17 minutes on Friday, a gunman streamed live video of a mass murder at a mosque in Christchurch. New Zealand police later alerted Facebook to the issue, and the company removed the shooter's account.

On Saturday, Facebook said it removed 1.5 million copies of the shooting video.

“We continue to work around the clock to remove violating content using a combination of technology and people,” Mia Garlick of Facebook New Zealand said in a statement.