Tech giant executives face jail time if they fail to quickly remove extreme footage from site
New laws will put tech giant executives behind bars if they leave harmful or dangerous content online in a dramatic intervention from the federal government to stop social media platforms being “weaponised with content’’.
New laws will put tech giant executives behind bars if they leave harmful or dangerous content online in a dramatic intervention from the federal government to stop social media platforms being “weaponised with content’’.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will haul media executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter into a meeting on Tuesday in Brisbane to explain the tough new laws, which are being drafted, and discuss ways of stopping dangerous terrorist propaganda and other harmful content on their platforms.
The crackdown would make it a criminal offence for social media companies to fail to rapidly remove footage of events filmed by the perpetrators of extreme violence, such as in the case of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
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If the offence can be proved, social media executives in Australia could be held personally liable in certain circumstances and could face jail time. The companies would also be penalised.
“We are considering all options to keep Australians safe,” Mr Morrison said.
“We need to prevent social media platforms being weaponised with terror content. If social media companies fail to demonstrate a willingness to immediately institute changes to prevent the use of their platforms, like what was filmed and shared by the perpetrator of the terrible offences in Christchurch, we will take action.”
The tough rules could also be applied to other harmful content.
The legislation will be based on existing offences that demand social media companies alert police about child abusers on their sites and laws that compel host sites to take the material down.
The new provisions would be criminal offences inserted into the Commonwealth Criminal Code and imprisonment is one option available as a penalty.
The PM’s view is that if Facebook and Twitter can comply with the processes to report sexual assault, they should be able to stop the mass murder of innocent people being live-streamed on their platforms.
It comes as one of Britain’s most influential advertising executives called for internet giants to be broken up, accusing them of ‘‘sucking money out’’ of the economy and damaging business and society.
In a withering attack, Sir John Hegarty — the man behind the famous 1980s Levi’s laundrette advert and Audi’s ‘‘Vorsprung durch Technik’’ slogan — said companies like Google and Facebook must be more strictly regulated as they have ‘‘turned into monopolies’’ and aren’t putting enough back into the economy.
‘‘They’re sucking money out [of the economy], not paying tax on it, and destroying what they’ve left behind,’’ he told UK Mail.
‘‘All corporations will want to monopolise. It’s in their nature. They’ll grow as fast and as big as they can, exclude competition, dominate the market, keep it where it is.’’
But Sir John believes there will be a breakup, with the possibility of Facebook being forced to sell off Instagram.
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