Australia plans tougher media laws

Australia is to become the first country in the world to introduce jail terms and multi-million-dollar fines for social media giants that do not quickly remove violent material.

In what is expected to be the final week of parliament before the federal election, the government will seek to put two new sets of offenses in the criminal code.

It will be a criminal offense for social media platforms not to remove abhorrent violent material quickly.

The speed of the removal would be determined by a jury.

This would be punishable by three years in jail for Australian or overseas executives or fines that can reach up to 10% of the platform’s global annual turnover.

Platforms anywhere in the world must notify the Australian Federal Police if they become aware their service is streaming abhorrent violent conduct that is happening in Australia.

The March 15 massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 50 worshippers were killed at two mosques was carried out by a suspected white supremacist who live-streamed the killings on Facebook, raising criticism of the role of social media in society.

“Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists,” Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

The laws will also give the e-Safety Commissioner the power to issue notices that bring this type of material to the attention of the social media companies.

As soon as they receive such a notice, the companies will be deemed to be aware of the material and the clock starts ticking for the hosting platform to remove the material or face penalties.

The laws will capture the playing or streaming of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape and kidnapping on social media.

A new task force has been set up to bring government and social media companies together to deal with the issue, which will also be put on the agenda for G20 leaders in Osaka, Japan, in June.

Several Australian media outlets broadcast or embedded some of the Christchurch mosque shooters footage on the day of the massacre.