Social media companies face fines for defamatory posts in Australia
The Australian government is considering a range
of measures, including fines, that would make social media companies more
responsible for defamatory material published on their platforms, Communications
Minister Paul Fletcher said on Sunday.
“We expect a stronger position from the
platforms,” Fletcher said in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“For a long time, they’ve been getting away with not taking any responsibility
in relation to content published on their sites.” Intensifying a debate over
the country’s libel and defamation laws, Prime Minister Scott
Morrison on Thursday called social media “a coward’s
palace”, saying platforms should be treated as publishers when defamatory
comments by unidentified people are posted.
“Social media has become a coward’s palace where
people can 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.
Fletcher said the government was looking at the
option to treat them as publishers and the extent of the responsibility in
general of platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook when defamatory material was published on their
sites. Asked whether the government would consider laws that would fine social
media platforms for posting defamatory material, Fletcher said the government
was looking at “a whole range” of measures.
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