Australia wants Facebook held liable for anonymous comments

CANBERRA – Australia’s premier curate connected Thursday described societal media arsenic a “coward’s palace” and warned that integer platforms including Facebook should beryllium held liable for defamatory comments posted anonymously.

Anonymous commentators who usage societal media to vilify and bully person go the latest battleground betwixt Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s authorities and U.S. tech giants. The authorities wants societal media users to beryllium required to place themselves.

Australia passed laws this twelvemonth that oblige Google and Facebook to wage for journalism. Australia besides defied the tech companies by creating a instrumentality that could imprison societal media executives if their platforms watercourse convulsive images.

Morrison said platforms that bash not uncover the identities of radical who station defamatory comments should beryllium held liable for those comments.

“Cowards who spell anonymously connected to societal media and vilify people, and harass them, and bully them, and prosecute successful defamatory statements, they request to beryllium liable for what they’re saying,” Morrison said.

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“Social media has go a coward’s palace wherever radical tin conscionable spell connected there, not accidental who they are, destruct people’s lives and accidental the astir foul and violative things to people, and bash truthful with impunity,” helium added.

His comments travel arsenic Australian authorities and territory governments are rushing to rewrite their defamation laws aft the High Court past period acceptable a precedent for the net age, ruling that media outlets tin beryllium held liable for defamatory comments posted by 3rd parties connected their Facebook pages.

The tribunal didn’t regularisation connected whether Facebook was besides liable due to the fact that the level wasn’t being sued.

The precedent applies to the administrators of each Facebook pages, including governments. The Tasmania authorities authorities has blocked comments from its societal media sites, and the U.S. quality enactment CNN has excluded Australians from its Facebook page.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said connected Wednesday the nationalist reappraisal of defamation laws volition apt analyse whether Facebook should beryllium liable for users’ posts.

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Morrison said the request for platforms to place commentators was an nonsubjective that his authorities would beryllium “leaning adjacent further into.”

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