Atlassian boss Mike Cannon-Brookes slams passage of social media laws

Atlassian’s founders have bagged laws designed to prevent the live streaming of violent material.

Billionaire software developer Mike Cannon-Brookes. John Feder/The Australian.

Atlassian boss Mike Cannon-Brookes has joined a revolt against new laws designed to prevent the spread of “abhorrent violent material”, describing their passage as a sad day for Australia’s technology industry.

Mr Cannon-Brookes, who was named Australia’s fourth richest person in The List in The Australian on the weekend, said that the bill — passed today — was poorly drafted and “filled with huge holes.”

“It’s sad. It’s another example of where they’re driving things through quickly without thinking,” Mr Cannon-Brookes told The Australian.

“There are lots and lots of obvious flaws in this bill.”

Sad to report the poor, rushed legislation covering "Streamed Terrorism" passed both houses just now - despite objections from bodies as diverse as @newscorpaus NewsCorp, the tech industry & @thelawcouncil (3 who rarely agree!) 😢 Another sad day for Aus tech & govt. #auspol

— Mike Cannon-Brookes 👨🏼‍💻🧢 (@mcannonbrookes) April 4, 2019

Adding that he thought the goal, aim and objectives of the bill were sound, the tech executive said the bill was a naked political ploy to wedge Labor on crime and terrorism.

“It’s disappointing for both major parties to have passed this,” he said.

“If I tweet one of your news articles, do I go to jail? Does Jack [Dorsey, Twitter CEO] go to jail? That’s the biggest problem, there’s a lack of consultation. This has been rushed through extremely fast, and it’s just extreme sloppiness.”

Under the legislation, abhorrent violent material is defined as content depicting a violent act of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape or kidnapping originally published by either the perpetrator or their accomplice.

“No-one is complaining that this content should be allowed on the internet,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said. “But it is very different to say this is the right bill to do it. It’s not.

“People in Canberra aren’t playing leadership, they’re playing politics.”

The new laws mean tech executives could face prison time if their online platform does not “expeditiously” remove offending material, while companies can be fined up to 10 per cent of their global turnover.

Never has petty party politics so clearly been on display. This flawed legislation just passed parliament. The ALP agreed it was flawed but supported it anyway (WTF?). We elect officials to do what's best for the country, but they are point scoring instead https://t.co/Ap0r3diFCV

— Scott Farquhar (@scottfarkas) April 4, 2019

“That’s another one of the holes, what does expeditiously mean?,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said. “Facebook took 75 minutes to take that stuff down, and if that’s not expeditious, then geez … What does it mean then for all the other companies who are way less sophisticated about doing this than Facebook is?”.

The comments echo those of Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, Australia’s fifth richest person, who tweeted his disdain for the bill’s rushed passage this morning.

“Never has petty party politics so clearly been on display. This flawed legislation just passed parliament. The ALP agreed it was flawed but supported it anyway (WTF?). We elect officials to do what’s best for the country, but they are point scoring instead,” he tweeted.

“As of today, any person working at any company (globally) that allows users to upload videos or images could go to jail. Guilty until proven innocent. They need to violate users privacy to police this. Whistleblowers highlighting human rights abuses aren’t excluded.”