Virtual social media has to follow ethics as new laws proposed in Australia
Canberra, March 26: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will outline the new criminal penalties at a meeting with Facebook, Google and Twitter representatives in Brisbane on Tuesday. PM’s objective was to make it clear to them the same rules that apply in the real world should also apply online.
Social media executives based in Australia could face jail time for failing to remove extremist video content under new laws proposed by the government in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings.
"We want to same rules to apply in the online social media world that exist in the physical world," Mr Morrison told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Phair, who spent more than two decades with the Australian Federal Police, urged the government to instead focus on educating the public about their social media use.
"The role of government here needs to be focused on Australian citizens, focused on trying to engender into people what it means to be a good digital citizen."
On 19th of March Mr Morrison has written to G20 chairman and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling for agreement on "clear consequences" for companies whose platforms are used to facilitate and normalise horrific acts.
Several websites including 4chan have been blocked by major Australian telcos for continuing to host footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack. "We understand this may inconvenience some legitimate users of these sites, but these are extreme circumstances and we feel this is the right thing to do," Telstra networks and IT executive Nikos Katinakis said in a statement on 19th of March. Telstra and other internet service providers have made the extraordinary decision to block access to these websites.