Cyberbully crackdown: anti-trolling bill passes Senate
Adults targeted online by predators will able to gain orders that abusive material including revenge porn be taken down.
Australians targeted by online predators will be able to gain orders that abusive material, including revenge porn, be taken down within 24-hours, after the federal government’s anti-trolling bill passed through parliament.
The government’s legislation will bolster the powers of the eSafety Commissioner to crack down on adult cyber-bullying by removing harmful abuse when platforms fail to do so and making anonymous perpetrators identifiable. Females are overwhelmingly the victims of unauthorised sharing of images online.
Under the bill, which passed the Senate on Tuesday evening, individuals accused of posting or sharing abusive content, including intimate images, will face fines of up to $111,00 for failing to remove the material. Digital giants like Facebook and Twitter could be fined up to $500,000 for ignoring take-down notices. Platforms would have 24 hours to comply – down from the previous 48 hour time limit to remove abuse material.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the Morrison government was committed to ensuring that Australians were not helpless when they were the subject of vile online abuse.
“People are entitled to the rule of law when they interact in the digital town square, as much as when they interact in the physical town square,” he said in Canberra.
Content will only be deemed adult cyber abuse if it is posted with the intent to cause harm and material that an ordinary person would view as “menacing, harassing or offensive”.
Mr Fletcher said he was confident the commissioner’s investigators could strike the right balance between removing harmful content and free speech.
“There is a reasonably high bar, it’s a higher bar than the existing rules dealing with cyber-bullying of children,” he said.
“That’s for a couple of reasons, we need to properly balance our freedom of speech issues here. And also, of course, adults are more resilient than children. But we also know that adults are frequently the victim of appalling online abuse.”
The bill also gives the commissioner additional powers to block website or apps during crises, like the 2019 Christchurch massacre, where the gunman live-streamed his murder.
The Greens opposed the bill and said it made the eSafety Commissioner the “sole arbiter of internet content in Australia.” The party also argued that people opposed to the sex industry and the LGBT community could abuse the complaints process to have adult content in this space removed.
Labor supported the bill with the passing of amendments, despite previously criticising the consultation process for being rushed. The bill will now pass through the lower house and commence at the end of the year.
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