Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned social media companies of potential changes to the law which will impose severe penalties if they do not make changes to stop the spread of terrorism-related material on their platforms.
The proposed potential changes to the Privacy Act force companies such as Facebook and Twitter, to remove terrorist footage as soon as they are notified that it has been uploaded on their platform. The longer it takes the company to remove the footage, the heavier fine they will face. The current penalty of $2.1 million for online platforms that seriously or repeatedly breach privacy laws will be increased to $10 million. They could alternatively be charged three times the value of any benefit obtained by missing information, or 10% of their domestic turnover, whichever figure is greater.
As well as punishing the companies, company executives based in Australia can be found personally liable. The new law is triggered by the Christchurch terror attacks on the Mosques, where the terrorist live streamed the massacre of 50 innocent people.