Faceless terrorists consistently frequent platforms such as Facebook to proliferate online abuse. Consequently, the Australian Government has proposed a new law to crack down on internet service providers and social media platforms to actively remove harmful content online.

Presently, there is no concrete regulation for the implications of sending threatening messages online. This poses the question as to why massive social platforms are not held accountable to the same extent as traditional news media or what is published in newspaper articles.

This new law will require social media platforms to remove “severely harmful, abusive or bullying content within 24 hours” or be subject to the penalties enshrined in the new bill, which at its maximum may impose a $500,000 fine. Additionally, if the social media platforms fail to take down the harmful content in the required time, the legislation will empower the government to mandate that larger services such as Google or Apple intervene to remove the content.

However, this law presents an issue of anonymity versus privacy. The bill provides the Australian eSafety Commissioner with the power to reveal a perpetrators identity when hiding behind the façade of a social media platform. But without strong criteria for assessment or thorough safety expectations, this may result in undue privacy violations in a failed attempt to protect people online. Moreover, the eSafety Commissioner will be endowed with the ability to quickly block malicious websites that could spread harmful content.  

Australia is taking the global lead with this innovative law, but it is necessary that this new legislation operates in unison with current Australian digital law and does not infringe on the privacy regime. The focus must remain on the accountability of the perpetrators without overly punishing the social media platforms.

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