The Australian parliament has approved legislation making it a criminal offence to not remove "abhorrent violent material expeditiously", the communications minister announced. Failure to do so would be punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment or fines of up to 10 percent of the platform’s annual turnover.
The legislation was rushed through parliament in the wake of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, after sites such as Facebook struggled to take down quickly live footage of the shooter's attack on mosques. The new law requires social media platforms anywhere in the world to notify the Australian police if they become aware their service is streaming abhorrent violent conduct that is happening in Australia. Failure to do so may result in fines of up to AUD 168,000 for an individual or AUD 840,000 for a corporation.
In addition, the e-Safety Commissioner will have the power to issue notices that bring this type of material to the attention of social media companies. As soon as they receive a notice, they will be deemed to be aware of the material, meaning the clock starts ticking for the platform to remove the material or face "extremely serious" criminal penalties.
The minister said the law also protects the ability of news media to report on events which are in the public interest within their existing licensing standards.
