4/03/2019

NEW ''AUSTRALIAN'' LAWS


NEW Australian laws could see social media execs jailed over terror images. Australia pledged Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billion for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms.

The tough new legislation will be brought to the parliament next week as Canberra pushed for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being ''weaponised'' by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Facebook said it ''quickly'' removed a staggering 1.5 million videos of the white supremacist massacre livestreamed on social media platform.

A 17-minute video of the March 15 rampage that claimed the lives of 50 people  was widely available online and experts said it was easily retrievable several hours after the attack.

''Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure    their technology products   are not   exploited by murderous  terrorists,'' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

Morrison, who met with a number of  tech firms  Tuesday   -including Facebook, Twitter and  Google  -said Australia would  would encourage other  G20  nations to hold social media firms to account.

Attorney General  Christian Porter  said the new laws would make it a criminal offence for  platform  not  to  ''expeditiously''   take down ''abhorrent  violent material''   like terror attacks , murder or rape.

Executives could face up to three years  in prison for failing to do so, he added, while social media platforms   -whose annual revenues can stretch into the tens of billions    -would face fines of up to 10 percent  of their annual turnover.

''Mainstream media that broadcast such material would be putting their license to risk and there is  no reason why  social media platforms  should be treated any differently,' Porter said.

The government was so far  ''under whelmed''   by the response from the social giants at   Tuesday meeting  with Morrison, communications minister  Mitch Fifield told reporters Saturday. [Agencies]

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