Editorial: Time for Google and other web giants to act against terror

IN today’s world, where the risk of a slaughter of the innocents seems ever present, detecting and dealing with signs of a terror threat is everybody’s business.

It’s time for Google and other web giants to act against terror. Picture: AFP Photo / Loic Venance

IN today’s world, where the risk of a slaughter of the innocents seems ever present, detecting and dealing with signs of a terror threat is everybody’s business.

Individuals are routinely implored by governments to report suspicious activity, to alert police to suspicious packages such as abandoned backpacks, and to talk to their teen children and seek help if they seem to be at risk of becoming radicalised.

But it has taken far too long for social media and internet search engines to begin taking responsibility for their part in the fight against Islamist terrorism.

Today’s Herald Sun reveals that 300 videos featuring radical, terrorism-inspiring content was stripped within hours from social media sites — sites most use every day, often many times a day.

Such shocking content which, in a connected world, modern terrorists use to promote their message and recruit adherents, has been peddled on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google for years, and too little has been done to curb it. Otherwise law-abiding organisations have become unwitting accessories to untold numbers of atrocities.

Following last weekend’s London terrorist attack, British Prime Minister Theresa May said global regulation of cyberspace was necessary so that social media would no longer offer “safe spaces” for extremist material.

For years, social media platforms have argued they are not responsible for curtailing or censoring activity online. However, how often do these same platforms provoke an outcry by removing images, such as of a mother breastfeeding an infant, because these are said to breach protocols?

It is incomprehensible that Islamist terrorism has been left to fester online when this most natural of human interactions is deemed beyond the pale.

Families of those killed by terrorists are right to feel let down, and the social media giants must no longer dodge their responsibilities. They must become more stringent in controlling content that criminals use to spread their evil messages.

Joining the chorus, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says multinational organisations should be compelled to take a “more responsible” approach to extremist material.

This will take an international effort. Western cultures should use all tools at their disposal, including legal measures, to neutralise this poison.

Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have begun talking seriously of their concerns, and now claim they are quick to act. Attempts to remove offending material are welcome, but the material should never have been allowed online in the first place.

Australia should look seriously at joining its “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing allies Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the United States to introduce sanctions to ensure internet companies meet their responsibilities. Regulators should be given the power to fine or prosecute those that fail in their duties.

An industry-wide levy to raise awareness and support preventive activity, paid by social media companies and service providers, should also be considered.

It is clear that technological development has left our laws behind, and they must now catch up.

There should be a financial and legal imperative for companies to toe the line and meet public expectations.

Ordinary people would be charged and jailed if they had blood on their hands.

Social media platforms that fail to act against the evil of terrorism must suffer no less of a consequence.

HONOURING OUR HEROES

TODAY we pause to pay tribute to some of this nation’s finest citizens.

First are the 673 Australians who have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Though many of them, such as actor Cate Blanchett, are household names, most are local heroes who carry on their good works well out of the public spotlight.

Some are recent immigrants or the sons and daughters of immigrants; others have risen above loss, poverty, illness or disability.

But one thing all have in common is a dedication to the betterment of Australia.

As grassroots champion Ray Morgan, of Hastings, who has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of dementia, put it: “Australia is very much a country of mates. We look after each other.”

This sense of mateship has also inspired another great Australian not on today’s honours list: former Essendon great Neale Daniher.

He is famously spearheading the campaign to find a cure for the motor neurone disease that is slowly stealing his life away.

Although a cure will almost certainly come too late for him, he has dedicated much of his remaining time to raising both funds and public awareness, in the hope that the prognosis for the two to three people a day who are diagnosed with this deadly and currently incurable disease will be brighter.

Today marks the biggest annual fundraiser for Fight MND: the Big Freeze 3 at the MCG. Please join Daniher and give what you can to enable more MND sufferers to join clinical trials in the hunt for a cure.

Donate at FightMND.org.au.