Social media companies should prevent users from spreading toxic content anonymously or they will face the same legal liability as if they were publishers of this information, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned.
“Social media has become a coward’s palace, where people can just go on there, not say who they are, destroy people’s lives and say the most foul and offensive things to people, and do so with impunity,” Morrison said on Thursday.
Online trolls and all those who disseminate toxic content on the internet “have to identify who they are” because in a “free society, you can’t be a coward and attack people and expect not to be held accountable for it,” he insisted.
“And, you know, the companies, if they’re not going to say who they are, well they’re not a platform anymore, they’re a publisher. They’re a publisher, and you know what the implications of that means in terms of those issues,” the PM pointed out.
The Australian government will be “leaning further into this” to address hate speech online and the “lack of accountability” by the tech giants that enable it, Morrison promised.
The warning came in the wake of revelations by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, who testified before a US Senate subcommittee earlier this week, accusing the platform of not doing enough to curb harmful content and putting profit above the wellbeing of its users. Those claims were refuted by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said they were a “false narrative” and assured that his company “[cares] deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health.”
Australia’s deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, also underlined Canberra’s eagerness to bring Facebook to account, saying he’s already been in contact with the US senators investigating Haugen’s allegations.
The issue has become personal for Joyce after rumors about the love life of his daughter were recently spread online. The deputy PM described them as “total and utter rubbish.”
“From my own personal experience of recent times, you have got to get to a point where you say enough is enough,” he said of toxic content on social media. “These platforms just say ‘oh well it’s too hard to control’. It’s not too hard for you to collect your billions of dollars from it and apparently it’s not too hard for you [to] set up vessels to avoid tax in Australia,” Joyce argued.
Last month, Australia’s High Court ruled that news organizations operating in the country could be held liable for defamatory comments left by people under posts on their social media accounts. The decision saw several outlets, including CNN, announce they will no longer publish their content on Facebook in Australia.
The country’s eSafety Commissioner was also granted extended powers a few months ago, which allowed the online safety agency to tackle cyberbullying that targets not just minors, but also adults.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
source: RT
Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la publicarea articolului, la judecătoria Orășenească nr. 1 München Bayern Deutschland, in conformitate cu Legea federală Germană. Considerăm că nu se pot formula acțiuni la instanțele din România deoarece nici o persoană care activează în trustul nostru nu poate fi extrasă de sub jurisdicția federală germană. Considerăm că redacția noastră nu răspunde în fața autorităților din România ci doar celor federale sau civile germane. deoarece legea română nu are efecte de extraneitate asupra redacției chiar dacă subiectul știrilor face obiectul unor evenimente sau persoane din România și sunt scrise în limba română. Limba română nu este izvor de extraneitate a legii.
absolvent WEB DESIGN Academia Britanică de Comunicare Iasi - absolvent COMUNICARE IN AFACERI Academia Britanica de Afaceri si Comunicare -absolvent JURNALISM EDITORIAL - London School University - 2019 inscris la echivalare diploma la Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara - absolvent studii de Drept Universitatea Europeană Drăgan, cursuri in Drept la Universitatea de Vest Timisoara, absolvent studii de proiectare, pastor coordonator in Biserica Protestanta Evanghelica,
Android Developer pe Google Play și plugin developer la Oxwall, creator de teme Wordpress și Oxwall, operator Wordpress, Drupal, Oxwall, Osclass, Moodle, tehnologii HTML și PHP
The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 should be called what it was – an imperialist war launched under the guise of a fight against terrorism, award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger has told RT. Pilger joined RT’s Going Underground program to reflect on the lessons that should be learned from two decades of occupation […]
The US Special Representative for Iran, Robert Malley, has shared America’s “growing concern” about Iran’s alleged nuclear advancement, as he declared that talks over reviving the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal are in a critical phase. Speaking on a call with reporters on Monday, Malley laid out Washington’s approach to nuclear discussions with Iran, as Western […]
An international investigation by the authorities in Europe and the United States has seen police detain at least 150 people and seize €26.7 million ($31 million) in a raid on darknet users. Speaking to Dutch broadcaster KRO-NCRV, the deputy executive director of operations at the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, […]
