Posted on 10/08/2021 10:37:26 PM PDT by fluorescence
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has criticised tech giants for the conduct that occurs on their platforms, stating that platforms would be viewed as publishers if they are unwilling to identify users that post foul and offensive content.
"Social media has become a coward's palace where people can just go on there, not say who they are, destroy people's lives, and say the most foul and offensive things to people, and do so with impunity," Morrison said at a press conference.
"The companies that [do not] say who they are, well, they're not a platform anymore. They're a publisher, and you know what the implications of that means in terms of those issues. So people should be responsible for what they say in a country that believes in free speech."
Morrison's comments about social media platforms follow Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce telling ABC Radio National earlier on Thursday that Australia would cracking down on misinformation on social media.
Federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has also reportedly written to her state counterparts in a bid to redraft the country's defamation laws.
Yesterday, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities, and the Arts Paul Fletcher said, during an address to the National Press Club, that there was "no question that misinformation or disinformation is a problem on social media".
The comments from various federal government officials about social media accountability come after Australia's High Court ruled last month that administrators of social media posts are liable for defamation from reader comments.
Since the ruling, media outlet CNN has disabled its Facebook page in Australia.
Australia currently has a voluntary code of practice for social media disinformation and misinformation. The code asks its signatories -- Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok, and Twitter -- to be cognisant of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights when developing proportionate responses to disinformation and misinformation.
While the voluntary code of practice is still in place, Fletcher on Wednesday said the government would keep that "under close scrutiny".
"If we don't think the voluntary code is sufficient then we will certainly consider more direct regulatory action," he said.
Over in the United States, the Senate has been conducting an inquiry into Facebook's operations, declaring the company as "morally bankrupt", flagging "the choices being made inside of Facebook" as "disastrous for our children, our privacy, and our democracy".
During the inquiry, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told the Senate that Facebook "is choosing to grow at all costs" -- which means that profits are being "bought with our safety."
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday released a statement to deny the allegations.
"We care deeply about issues like safety, wellbeing, and mental health. It's difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives. At the most basic level, I think most of us just don't recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted," Zuckerberg wrote in a note to Facebook employees that he publicly posted on his Facebook page.
Well, right now, of course, we're working with New South Wales on a trial using digital identity for the purchase online of alcohol. It's not a big step to go forward to say: well, hang on, maybe we should be using digital identity for those that would wish to gamble online or other areas where identity needs to be proven.
We've got one of the most robust federated digital identity systems anywhere in the world now, Kieran. Well, there's opportunities for us to look, perhaps, to use it, because the idea that trolls hiding behind anonymity can just attack Australian citizens, attack children, bully young girls and boys online is completely and utterly unacceptable.
If you want to have a barbecue stopper, Kieran, ask mums and dads about their concerns about children accessing pornography online or about children being bullied online, about social media platforms presenting content that is inappropriate for children online. These are conversations right now that we need to tackle, and part of that is the issue of anonymised Australians, anonymised overseas, anonymised predators going after our citizens online and whether that's appropriate. And frankly, I join the Prime Minister, it's not.
F the fascist Aussie gov’t.
Will that kill FR?
Of all the reasons that social media companies actually are publishers, not publishing their users’ identities ain’t one of them. How about micromanaging every last word for partisan political purposes? Let’s start there.
Ping
A publisher selects content, and often gives a byline to the author.
A common carrier (like a phone company) gives access to everyone, and does not reveal its users' names.
So if a social media platform does not reveal its users' names, that makes it more like a common carrier than a publisher.
I don’t know why Australia is putting up such a fuss about China, when they seem to be fine repeating all of China’s oppression.
What the hell do you think the orchestrate “Facebook whistleblower” was all about. It’s to set the stage to make anonymous comments and posters identifiable so that they can be outed and harassed/prosecuted for disinformation/misinformation or innocuous threats.
The whistleblowers complaint wasn’t that FB was unreasonably censoring post but that they weren’t censoring enough.
Who defines “foul”? Who defines “offensive”?
And hence such comments have zero weight or impact. Unless you're some wilting lily, like these Aussie politicians seem to have become.
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