Tourism New Zealand has suspended marketing around the world following the terror attacks in Christchurch as all Government spending on social media platforms is reviewed.

Tourism NZ says the ”pause” is across all marketing platforms.

It spends about 80 percent of its $45.3 million annual advertising budget in digital channels, which give it deep international reach. These include Facebook and Google-owned YouTube, which have been widely condemned for allowing offensive content to be run on their sites.

Tourism NZ has had a long collaboration including content partnerships with Facebook.

“In response to the event [in Christchurch] we have paused our marketing activity across all advertising platforms,” said the general manager, New Zealand and Government Relations, Rebecca Ingram.

”At this stage it’s too early to say how and when we will start promotion again. We are currently working with our key markets to inform our approach.”‘

Fifty people were killed in the attacks on two mosques last Friday, March 15.

The Tourism NZ Facebook page has more than 3 million followers. In the comments section are photos of the alleged Christchurch gunman, a disabled link to video of the killings and comments about the killings, some critical of the country and others praising the response.

These are interspersed with separate and more typical observations from tourists who enjoyed their holidays here.

When these were pointed out, a spokeswoman said its social media accounts were monitored and this had been ”amplified” since last Friday.