Australia Passes Law to Punish Social Media Companies for Violent Posts

For this weeks what works, I have chosen an article about Australia passing a new law punishing social media companies for violent post. This law imposes huge fines for social media companies and jail for their executives if they fail to rapidly remove “abhorrent violent material” from their platforms. This is widely opposed by the social media world but holds Facebook and Youtube accountable. This comes after an alleged Australian gunman distributed a hate-filled manifesto online before using Facebook to live-stream the massacre that happened in Christchurch, New Zealand. The article goes on to say that the verbage used in the bill is very strong. Many people are all for this while others oppose it.

This article works because of the recent happenings with the New Zealand shootings. Social media is a really large part of everyones day to day life. It is an influential part of many peoples days. Many Americans would argue this is against their first amendment rights. However, social media is not covered under the first amendment and Australia has different laws.