Australia to fine platforms that leave violent content online for too long

Australia will fine online platforms that leave excessively violent material online for too long. The fine can be up to ten percent of the annual worldwide turnover. Prison terms are also possible. Critics call the new legislation ill-considered.

These are videos and photos that show murder, torture or rape, regardless of who uploads them. There is not yet a maximum period of time within which the material must be taken offline. Australian Prime Minister Morrison does label the fact that the live stream of the shooting in New Zealand was online for an hour as “unacceptable”.

Reuters writes that juries will assess whether or not platforms have taken offending content in a timely manner. Under the new law, companies must also inform the police ‘within a reasonable time’. Parliament approved the law on Thursday. The Australian justice minister called it “probably a world first”.

The Digital Industry Group Inc, a group representing Australia’s digital industry, argues that the law does not take into account the complexity of removing violent content on those platforms. “So much content is uploaded to the internet at once that the problem is very complex,” said the chairman of the group, which includes Facebook, Google and Twitter. In any case, Facebook, on which the attack in Christchurch was streamed, is already working on tightening its surveillance.