Australia is to and multi-million-dollar fines for social media giants that do not quickly remove violent material.
In what is expected to be the final week of parliament before the federal election, the government will seek to put two new sets of offences in the criminal code.
It will be a criminal offence for social media platforms not to remove abhorrent violent material quickly.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new legislation has come in response to the Christchurch attacks.
“Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists,” Mr Morrison said in a statement.
“It should not just be a matter of just doing the right thing. It should be the law. And that is what my government will be doing next week to force social media companies to get their act together and work with law enforcement and intelligence agencies to defuse the threat their technologies can present to the safety of Australians."
Facebook on Friday said it would tighten live video streaming rules in response to the Christchurch attacks.
Many people have "rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the attack," chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an online post.
"In the wake of the terrorist attack, we are taking three steps: strengthening the rules for using Facebook Live, taking further steps to address hate on our platforms, and supporting the New Zealand community," she added.
Scott Morrison (left) and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met for bilateral talks earlier this year. Source: AAP
Facebook is looking into barring people who have previously violated the social network's community standards from livestreaming on its platform, according to Sandberg.
The social network is also investing in improving software to quickly identify edited versions of violent video or images to prevent them from be shared or re-posted.
Under the government's proposed legislation, the speed of the removal of the violent material would be determined by a jury.
This would be punishable by three years in jail for Australian or overseas executives or fines that can reach up to 10 per cent of the platform's global 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.
The laws will also give the e-Safety Commissioner the power to issue notices that bring this type of material to the attention of the social media companies.
As soon as they receive that type of notice, the companies will be deemed to be aware of the material and the clock starts ticking for the hosting platform to remove the material or face penalties.
The laws will still ensure that news media can report appropriately on events which are in the public interest, without showing the violent material itself.
Labor technology spokesperson Ed Husic said his party wanted to see more details about the proposed laws.
“With respect to social media, these are some of the most powerful firms on the planet, they have powerful capability, their artificial intelligence probably knows what you’re going to have for breakfast before you do. We want them to act, but if they can't and won't, we believe that stronger laws need to be put in place to deal with this,” he said.
“We’ve been saying this, ourselves as the opposition, for some time and from our point of view what we want to do is support strong and sensible laws, not stunts.
"We want to go through the detail of what’s actually been proposed. A lot of this has been announced by media without us seeing the law.”
Labor MP Ed Husic Source: AAP
Mr Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter were left unimpressed after a meeting with social media companies earlier this week, called in response to the live-streaming of the killing of 50 people in two New Zealand mosques.
"There are many actions we need to take to keep Australians safe in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attacks, and our government has been getting on with that job," Mr Morrison said following the midweek meeting.
"Foremost among these is to recognise how social media platforms are being weaponised by terrorists.
"Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists."
Mr Porter said the amendments to the Criminal Code would be modelled on existing offences in the Criminal Code which require platforms to notify police if their service is being used to access child pornography.
“Mainstream media that broadcast such material would be putting their licence at risk and there is no reason why social media platforms should be treated any differently,” Mr Porter said.
The laws will capture the playing or streaming of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape and kidnapping on social media.
A new task force has been set up to bring government and social media companies together to deal with the issue, which will also be put on the agenda for G20 leaders in Osaka, Japan, in June.
