Facebook and Twitter face crackdown on offensive content

Tech giants would be required to ‘invest heavily’ in efforts to remove harmful posts, under a draft online safety charter.

Facebook, Twitter and other tech giants will be required to “invest heavily” in efforts to remove harmful or offensive posts under a draft online safety charter ­released by the federal government which puts large companies on notice to do more.

A consultation paper about the new charter acknowledges “some industry participants” have taken a strong and positive approach to online safety while “others have not taken this approach and have exposed users to online harms”.

The draft charter was released as the federal government tabled a review of online safety legislation by Lynelle Briggs, now a commissioner on the aged-care royal commission, which recommended “major change” to the piecemeal laws that currently exist.

“I found in these reviews that the current system of industry co-regulation is insufficient to ­address the threats of harm, and that the legislation governing the system is in need of overhaul,” Ms Briggs writes.

She says legislation should require industry to ensure online safety and to patrol, detect and remove harmful or illegal content from their platforms. Ms Briggs recommends a single piece of legislation to replace the two current laws and “a much more proactive regulatory regime”.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield backed the safeguards, saying Australians expected standards of behaviour online should be the same as those offline. “It is important that we be clear with industry about what we expect from large technology firms that have such a significant influence in our economy and community,” Senator Fifield said.

The guidelines would make it mandatory to use whatever solution works best to immediately remove seriously harmful material such as child sex abuse and terrorism-related content.