Australia Passes Law To Punish Social Media Companies For Violent Posts (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Australia passed sweeping legislation Thursday that threatens huge fines for social media companies and jail for their executives (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source) if they fail to rapidly remove "abhorrent violent material" from their platforms. The law -- strongly opposed by the tech industry -- puts Australia at the forefront of a global movement to hold companies like Facebook and YouTube accountable for the content they host. It comes less than a month after a gunman, believed to be an Australian white nationalist, distributed a hate-filled manifesto online before using Facebook to live-stream the massacre of 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Written quickly and without much input from technology companies or experts, the measure goes as far as any other democracy's attempt to punish multinational tech platforms for the behavior of their users. "The legislation criminalizes 'abhorrent violent material,' which it defines as videos that show terrorist attacks, murders, rape or kidnapping. Social media companies that fail to remove such content 'expeditiously' could face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual profit, and employees could be sentenced to up to three years in prison," the report adds. "Companies must also inform the police when illegal material is found."

"This law, which was conceived and passed in five days without any meaningful consultation, does nothing to address hate speech, which was the fundamental motivation for the tragic Christchurch terrorist attacks," said Sunita Bose, the managing director of the Digital Industry Group, an advocacy group representing Facebook, Google and other companies. "With the vast volumes of content uploaded to the internet every second, this is a highly complex problem that requires discussion with the technology industry, legal experts, the media and civil society to get the solution right -- that didn't happen this week."

Comments

Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[walterbyrd]

Or prove that heavy metal music, or video games cause violence.

Does the Koran cause violence?

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[Anonymous Coward]

Crusades

A justified reaction against Islamic aggression.

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[Anonymous Coward]

Crusades

A justified reaction against Islamic aggression.

No it wasn't. Read about that in this book. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds " Charles MacKay.

I'm the first one to bash Islam for being a backwards stiffing misogynist religion, but the Crusades were not their fault. It was profiteering evil Christian clergy.

Religion is a cancer in this World and the sooner we ditch it the better for the human race.

Re: Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[Anonymous Coward]

I studied Islam for over 20 years and I lived in the Middle East for four of them. It's a fact that the Quoran mandates violence against non-muslims.

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[SirAstral]

This is utter flapping bullshit. Religion is not the problem, never has been.

Evil people are evil, they just USE religion as an excuse to be or act out what they ALREADY ARE! You don't need religion to justify it either, secular people have no problem murdering, hurting, trash talking, abusing, and marginalizing other people just the same as people with a religion.

At the very end there is only 1 religion. the religion of you trying to make people live the way you want them to... its called society... that IS the religion and the only one that exists. You can center it around 1 god, multiple gods, no gods, or humans. It is all the same... people coming up with some excuse, scheme, idea, policy, law, regulation, or rule people have to follow to be accepted into that society or risk getting excluded. Every religion and non-religious group has jails and a desire to put anyone they decide they do not like in jails so they are out of society.

Saying religion is the root of all evil when it is actually just "humans" being evil just shows that you have a nasty bias that creates a serious deficit of intellectual honesty in your logic!

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[harrkev]

The "official religion" of Communism is atheism. How many millions did they kill?

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[stealth_finger]

Its a fact that the religion causes violence.

FTFY

Re: Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[greythax]

And it's a fact that the bible mandates violence against people who take the lord's name in vain. Your point?

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[stealth_finger]

Saying religion is the root of all evil when it is actually just "humans" being evil just shows that you have a nasty bias that creates a serious deficit of intellectual honesty in your logic!

Yeah but it's a lot easier when you can say 'This is gods plan' or 'god told me to do it' or 'its in the fucking bible' and move responsibility rather than take it yourself. Being a dick to others it literally codified in the books. Yes, people are dicks, but religious people are generally bigger ones.

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[drinkypoo]

Saying religion is the root of all evil when it is actually just "humans" being evil just shows that you have a nasty bias that creates a serious deficit of intellectual honesty in your logic!

It's religion that has a serious deficit of intellectual honesty, and logic... and those deficits are inherent. Religion turns well-meaning people into evil people by giving them a sense of justness which they do not deserve. It teaches people to make decisions on specious bases, and to feel smug about them, which is why it's inherently harmful.

Re: Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[drinkypoo]

I refuse to hate an entire nation or religion because of some wrongdoing in the past. But I won't forget it either...

It's ridiculous not to abhor all religion based on what it's done in the past, given that it's not materially different today and can do all the same stuff again.

Religion teaches some people to feel superior to other people because they believe something stupid. As such, it is all harmful.

Religions which promote theocracy are especially bad, which is why Islam is particularly bad. It explicitly teaches that any laws not of god are inferior to those which are of god, and sets itself up as the voice of god. Theocracy always leads to abuse. ALWAYS.

Any religion can used for the basis of theocracy, so that's another bad thing about all religions. But religions which are deliberately theocratic are especially awful.

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[fazig]

Atheism is as much a religion as turning off the TV is a TV channel.

The official religion of Communism, which has pretty much all the qualities of a religion, is Communism itself.
This is pretty evident by the fact that virtually all of the great communist leaders have had themselves elevated to a godlike status as the fathers of the nation. They created huge personality cults around themselves, which celebrated them in various ways not unlike some kind of religious guru figure.
This is probably also the main reason why communist leaders persecuted other religion, because they wanted citizens to have no other gods besides of themselves.

Re:Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[thegarbz]

This is utter flapping bullshit. Religion is not the problem, never has been.

No *that* is bullshit. Religion while not the only problem most definitely is a big problem. People aren't born evil. They don't pass through the vagina with a leather jacket, knuckleduster in hand and swastika tattoos and crosses. Being evil is something that is learned.

Religion is an appeal of authority from an unknown force. That authority is used to radicalise and mold people's beliefs. That very authority is incompatible with the idea that any other authority can exist which is why fundamentally all religions claim they are the one true religion and that false worshipers are enemies.

In many cases it is the existence of religion itself which has made people evil. It is the authority of religion that has caused evil people to spread evil unto others. And above all, a great many evil acts have been done *in the name of* religion, not "excused by", "not in defense of" but actively "in the name of" religion.

Religion isn't the root of all evils. It is however a hell of a big contributor as both the source and the spread of evil.

By the way you need to die infidel. My holy book has said so and my holy man decreed it so, and he has the backing of god so therefore he can't be evil. Now come heather so I can do the will of god and rid the world of your evil.

Re: Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[UnknownSoldier]

> Religion teaches some people to feel superior to other people because they believe something stupid. As such, it is all harmful.

Throw the baby out with the bath water much???

Blaming a _philosophy_ when people's actions are the problem is intellectually dishonest.

The intent of Judaic Law, such as the 10 commandments, was to codify and communicate good morality -- don't murder, don't steal, don't lie, don't cover, etc.

The intent of Christianity was to end the stupidity of Judaism killing innocent animals and to treat others with respect -- you know that whole Golden Law "Treat others how you want to be treated" which supersedes the archaic, barbaric, myopic Iron Law of "Might makes Right." To parody a common cliche: In the land of an eye-for-an-eye the blind man is king.

Methinks you completely missed the ENTIRE point of Adult Religion == Kindergarten Spirituality.

But keep blaming an inanimate object/concept (Religion) because a few people didn't get the memo.

Re: Prove that youtube videos cause violence?

[xenobyte]

Misrepresent much???

My reading of the Quran tells me that violence is condoned in the event of an attack by an oppressive host which does not tolerate Islamic worship, and as retaliation for other acts of violence.

In the absence of such provocations, peace and amity are enjoined.

One could say that this policy matches that followed by the nation of Israel.

Either you are misrepresenting or you have not studied the matter fully.

So what you are saying is that

- Not accepting Islamic worship (and thus lifestyle) is a provocation
- Provocation is a valid excuse for violence

Which again means that every country or area with a Muslim minority that are trying to enforce their way of life upon others, but are met with resistance, are valid targets for violence?

Most western countries resist certain parts of the Islamic way of life, including gender separation, discrimination against women and homosexuals and the expected adoption of Islamic rules, like a ban on pork and alcohol. Some also resist the veil or especially the full face covering of the burka and the niqab. So violence against these countries is both justified and expected?

I'm sure this will have no unintended consequences

[alvinrod]

I'm sure that this will work out perfectly fine and absolutely no unintended consequences will arise as a result.

Mass censorship incoming

[danbuter]

The internet was a lot of fun, guys. Sadly, it's been taken over and you will only be allowed to view government-approved content in the future.

Re:Mass censorship incoming

[Dunbal]

Facebook, Google and Twitter are not "the internet". It's people's laziness that results in the web being distilled down into a single purveyor of search, porn, instant messaging, social media, etc. Logically governments everywhere like to apply force to these natural choke-points. But the internet is much, much more than these few sites and just like you can still download any show, movie or program you want even today, you will always be able to do what you want to do online. You will just have to be less lazy about it.

Kneejerk Move

[dcw3]

Sorry Australia, but you got this one wrong. Your well intentioned emotional response to a tragic event is gonna bite you in the ass.

Re:Don't let this happen here

[squiggleslash]

Australia is run by a Murdoch-backed right wing government. But don't let that stop you pretending it's the "left" because they want to take... uh your right to die outside a hospital you can't afford to use away.