Meta said in a statement on Tuesday: “Our priority is to protect people using our services from seeing this horrific content … We have taken steps to prevent possible copies of the incident being re-shared and are in contact with law enforcement and the eSafety Commissioner’s office to provide any necessary assistance.”
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Authorities believe the bishop’s assailant was motivated by religious extremism and have deemed the stabbing a potential terrorist attack, prompting Dutton to put a spotlight on intelligence agencies’ warnings on online radicalisation.
“While all of this is under investigation … and we should allow the law enforcement response to take place, it’s a reminder that when impressionable young minds are bombarded with extremist ideology online, then there can be terrible outcomes,” he said.
“The digital tech giants must do more to prevent this evil material from being in the public domain – and when they don’t, we should be pursuing them with all the powers available to us. The tech giants are on notice here.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday he was deeply concerned about social media debates, adding he had discussed with Rowland the federal agencies’ attempts to remove the church stabbing video.
Rowland’s misinformation laws are being reworked after they were put on ice last year. The Coalition raised worries about censorship, but the government insisted regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, would not have an all-powerful role in judging the merits of individual posts.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw and head of ASIO Mike Burgess on Tuesday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The government’s decision to pursue a remodelled bill before the election risks a new backlash over free speech.
Social media firms were also the subject of a parliamentary inquiry which, in August, recommended forcing social media firms to open up their systems to analysis on foreign interference, creating a government entity to deal with cyber-based foreign interference and demanding platforms hire Australia-based staff, which X does not.
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Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson criticised Labor for not following these recommendations targeting malicious foreign actors and their proxies, who he said weaponised traumatic events, pointing to the false claims about the stabbings.
“Weakening our social cohesion and undermining our national unity is key objective of foreign authoritarian governments,” he said.
“We shouldn’t wait for more tragedies before taking steps to protect our democracy and social cohesion against those who wish to undermine them and harm us.”
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