Qld’s $1.5m fine threat for social media giants behaving badly

Social media platforms can be hit with fines of up to $1.5m for failing to remove videos glorifying crime or violence in Queensland, under harsh new proposed takedown laws.

Social media platforms can be hit with fines of up to $1.5m for failing to remove videos glorifying crime or violence in Queensland, under harsh new proposed takedown laws designed to stop young criminals boasting of their exploits.

Police Minister Mark Ryan introduced the 200-page suite of community safety laws on Wednesday, with changes ranging from increased penalties for knife crime, a new firearm prohibition scheme, police paperwork efficiencies, and allowing the phone calls of youth prisoners to be recorded.

Queensland police officers will no longer have to act as “posties” under changes that will allow them to serve paperwork electronically, in a move set to save them 28,000 collective hours a year.

Under the changes, Queensland police will also be empowered to seek court-ordered civil penalties from social media providers who fail to take down offending material after being issued a notice, including as quickly as 24 hours.

It comes after police, in 2023, were provided a dedicated team to track and request social media companies remove videos and posts put up by youth offenders.

Mr Ryan said these posts glorified and glamorised offending and was “offensive” and risked further traumatising victims and the community and making them feel unsafe.

Police Minister Mark Ryan in Parliament on Wednesday. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

“To ensure that providers comply with these requirements, there will be strong penalties. The Queensland Police Service will be able to apply to the Supreme Court for a civil penalty up to $1.5m for failure to comply with a removal notice,” he said.

Videos shared by Queenslanders, such as CCTV footage of a break-in on a community social media page, are not designed to be captured by the changes.

Police work will be made more efficient, with officers able to serve documents such as notice-to-appear documents for criminal matters not involving immediate arrest and domestic violence orders electronically.

The prison phone calls made by young people will also be recorded for the first time amid staggering intelligence suggesting kids were using their phone time to call their mates in other prisons – through an intermediary – to intimidate witnesses and promote general lawlessness.

Queenslanders with a propensity for violence, including those with links to criminal or terrorist groups, will be barred from owning firearms while empowering police to search them to ensure compliance.

The firearm prohibition order scheme will bring Queensland into line with most other states and territories and comes amid a 60 per cent increase in registered guns in the state in the past decade and a 21 per cent jump in gun theft in the same time.

Under the slew of changes, a people convicted of unlawfully possessing a knife in a public place or school face maximum fines of $7700 and 18 months jail for a first offence.