🗞️Opposition Leader Calls for Global Benchmark on Misinformation Penalties

“Yeah, we are, and happy to have a look at anything the Government puts forward, as we've said over the last week, with the horrendous scenes that we've seen. There's obviously AI tools that are available, there's a lot of technology – because you're talking about at scale and people who get accounts closed down, pop up under another name and pseudonym, otherwise.

As Home Affairs Minister, we tried to get all of the Five Eyes partners together, the Home Affairs Ministers to exert pressure, particularly in relation to the child protection space.

These companies have snubbed their noses at Governments in the United States, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, for many, many years, the European Union I think has had a gut full as well. They're allowing paedophiles to distribute through their networks, images and videos of children being sexually abused, they're impeding the investigations of the police.

So, there are many aspects here that we need to deal with. Just given the impact, the influence that it has on young, impressionable minds, I think we need to do everything we can.” Mr. Dutton told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.

He said “ No question at all, and I think there's a bipartisan position in relation to this. We know that the companies – and we've seen some of the comments from Elon Musk overnight – they see themselves above the law. The Australian law here should apply equally in the real world as it does online. As Phil was pointing out before, you would be sued for defamation and you would be taken before the courts under various acts for publishing some of that which freely flows on the internet.

There's an age verification regime which has been recommended by the eSafety Commissioner from 2023. We think that's something the Government should pick up straightaway as well, but the Online Safety Act has significant powers in it, we passed it when we were in government and it needs to be enforced. If the laws are inadequate and they need to be strengthened or added to, then we would support any effort from the Government.

“We need to get the right balance. So, that is we don't want to impinge on your ability to express a view in a democracy. It's a key, fundamental element of who we are, that people can express their view, but they need to do it respectfully, and as I say, the same laws need to apply in the real world as they do online. It's a matter of enforcing the laws and taking action, giving the eSafety Commissioner further powers if that's required. But I think here we're talking about images in particular, which are offensive and which can trigger violent reactions as we saw, earlier this week.” He said.

Mr. Albanese said , “ Well, we've taken strong action already. We quadrupled funding for the eSafety Commissioner. I say this, media companies, including social media companies, have a responsibility to act. It shouldn't need the eSafety Commissioner to intervene, to direct companies, in this case X and Meta, to take down violent videos that show people who have lost their lives as a result of what occurred with the perpetrator committing that atrocity on Saturday. The fact that that was circulated is something that had a real detrimental impact.”

“The Minister for Communications has directed those companies to take down that footage. I also make this point that the police made last Saturday, which is that for people who had video footage of last Saturday, their first thought should not have been to post it online. Their first thought should have been to forward it to police to assist their investigations. We all have, because social media makes all of us publishers of content, we all have a responsibility. But the social media companies that make a lot of money out of their business have a social responsibility. And I want to see social media companies start to understand their social responsibility that they have to others as well, because that's where they get their social licence.”