Anthony Albanese says disinformation and misinformation in wake of Sydney stabbing attacks ‘exacerbated’ harms

An avalanche of dangerous misinformation on social media in the wake of the Sydney stabbing attacks has renewed Labor’s push to crackdown on platforms hosting misleading content.

An avalanche of dangerous misinformation on social media in the wake of the Sydney stabbing attacks has renewed Labor’s push to crackdown on platforms hosting misleading content as Anthony Albanese insists he is not trying to limit freedom of expression.

The Coalition has signalled it will carefully consider any proposed new misinformation and disinformation laws that could rein in the spread of false violent content online, provided free speech was protected.

Labor had planned to introduce laws to parliament toward the end of the year, but it can be revealed the federal government is now actively considering bringing the bill forward.

The Prime Minister said the fallout of the Sydney church stabbing terror attack had furthered growing “recognition that misinformation is a problem on social media”.

“This isn’t about freedom of expression, this is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true … are replicated and weaponised in order to cause division and in this case to promote negative statements and potentially to inflame what was a very difficult situation,” he said.

Australian Prime minister Anthony Albanese attended a candlelight vigil for the victims of the stabbing attack at the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, saying the pain of the incident had been exacerbated by social media misinformation. Picture: Izhar Khan

“Social media has a social responsibility”.

Mr Albanese also said the pain of the “senseless act of violence” when six people were fatally stabbed at a Bondi shopping centre last week had been “exacerbated” by false social media content.

Elon Musk has been criticised after his social media company X announced it would challenge a take-down order from the eSafety Commissioner for posts containing footage of the Sydney terror attack. Picture: Etienne Laurent/AFP

“Some of the misinformation, including naming some innocent bloke as the perpetrator, is just extraordinary that that occurred and ... was replicated,” he said.

Coalition communications spokesman David Coleman if Labor wanted to further strengthen penalties for social media companies who do not remove dangerous or violent content, the opposition would back this move.

“We know we can’t trust social media companies, which is why the Coalition have the eSafety Commission strong powers in this Online Safety Act to remove dangerous material,” he said.

“The Commissioner has our 100 pre cent support- compliance with Australian law is not optional.”

But Mr Coleman said the Coalition would “carefully review” the government’s revised misinformation bill once it was released.

“It’s critical that the revised bill strikes the right balance and does not impinge on the rights of Australians to express their views in our democracy,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Australians should be “filthy” at Elon Musk’s comments in the wake of the Sydney stabbing attack. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

On Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was scathing of billionaire Elon Musk after social media company X announced it would challenge an order by the eSafety Commission to remove footage of the Sydney church terror attack last week.

“I think Australians should be filthy about the way that Elon Musk is behaving in this respect,” he said.

“He should comply with our laws and I think all of us are concerned in one way or another about the capacity for social media to spread misinformation and disinformation, and as the owner of one of the main, he should care about that too.”