It was an Australian behind the murder of 50 innocent Muslims in New Zealand and live streamed it on Facebook and now, barely a month later his country passed the world's first laws that make it a crime for tech firms to host violent videos on their platforms.
The Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Bill proposed only last week by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and passed into law by the Australian Parliament Thursday will create two new crimes:
It will be a criminal offense for social media platforms not to remove abhorrent violent material expeditiously. This will be punishable by 3 years' imprisonment or fines that can reach up to 10% of the platform's annual turnover.
Platforms anywhere in the world must notify the Australian Federal Police if they become aware their service is streaming abhorrent violent conduct that is happening in Australia. A failure to do this will be punishable by fines of up to A$168,000 for an individual or A$840,000 for a corporation.
The bill also creates a regime for the eSafety Commissioner to notify social media companies they are deemed to be aware they are hosting abhorrent violent material, triggering an obligation to take it down.
Attorney General Christian Porter said a "reasonable" or "expeditious" timeframe will depend on the circumstances and be up to a jury to decide. He argued that "every Australian would agree it was totally unreasonable that it (the video of the Christchurch shootings) should exist on their site for well over an hour without them taking any action whatsoever".
"This law would prevent that and criminalize that and offer the government an ability to respond where an organization like Facebook let something live stream and play for a long time on their platform."
The Australian government contends that websites "should not be weaponized." The laws put the onus on firms to remove harmful content "expeditiously," a term the law didn't define but would be ultimately determined by a jury, said the government.
"There are platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook who do not seem to take their responsibility to not show the most abhorrently violent material seriously," said Porter.
The Digital Industry Group representing Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Verizon Media in Australia warns the law was passed without meaningful consultation. It also said the law threatens penalties against tech companies for content created by users.
Legal experts warned the hastily crafted law in its current form might lead to media censorship or prevent whistleblowers from sharing information.
"Laws formulated as a knee-jerk reaction to a tragic event do not necessarily equate to good legislation and can have myriad unintended consequences," said the Law Council of Australia.
The Labor opposition helped to pass the legislation Thursday despite flaying it as "flawed." It pledged to review the laws after Australia's election next month.
