Online safety bill passes the Australian senate
The Online Safety Bill 2021 establishes schemes to protect cyber abuse victims by forcing social media companies, internet and hosting providers to remove harmful material within 24 hours.
Communications minister Paul Fletcher, who introduced the bill to the federal government in February, said “the Act represents a step-change for eSafety”.
“[The rules] tighten [the eSafety Commissioner's] powers in existing areas, and create a new reporting scheme that will allow the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, to take action to remove toxic cyber-abuse, when online platforms fail to do so,” Fletcher said.
The committee said the aims of the legislation were “strongly supported” however, expressed concerns over the commissioner's future powers.
Google Australia added it was “often impossible for a cloud provider to remove individual pieces of content”, which the internet giant said the bill fails to address.
