Current Events > Trolling online in Australia is now illegal with 555k fines

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/23/coalition-bill-would-block-online-platforms-still- hosting-harmful-content-24-hours-after-takedown-notices

Australian internet service providers, social media companies and other online platforms will need to remove severely harmful, abusive or bullying content within 24 hours or risk being blocked and fined $555,000 under the federal governments proposed online safety legislation.

Currently, takedown notices for image-based abuse, cyber-abuse, cyberbullying, and seriously harmful online content needs to be actioned within 48 hour

Under the Coalitions bill, if a website or app ignores takedown notices for content such as child sexual abuse material, the e-safety commissioner will require search engines and app stores to block access to those services. Websites and social media platforms will face fines of up to $555,000 for ignoring a direction to remove the trolling material, while individuals will face fines up to $111,000. These are sanctions already in place for cyberbullying a child, but will be extended to apply to adults.

A rapid website-blocking power has been added to allow the commissioner to respond to online crisis events such as the Christchurch terrorist attacks, by requesting internet service providers block access to terrorist and extremely violent content for a limited time period.

As well as substantial new measures to protect adults online, the draft legislation also adds protections for children, expanding the cyberbullying scheme to enable removal of material from online games, websites, messaging and hosting services rather than just social media.

Under strengthened information-gathering powers, the e-safety commissioner would be able to unmask the identities behind anonymous or fake accounts responsible for online abuse or exchanging illegal content. An updated online content scheme would require the industry to do more to keep users safe online through updated industry code

The federal communications and cyber safety minister, Paul Fletcher, said these are substantial reforms

The internet has brought great social, educational and economic benefits, he said in a statement on Wednesday. But just as a small proportion of human interactions go wrong offline, so too are there risks online. By establishing proper protections to help keep Australians safe online, we can in turn help Australians to realise the substantial benefits that come from using the internet.

The proposed legislation classifies cyber-abuse material aimed at adults as material an ordinary reasonable person would conclude is menacing, harassing or offensive and likely and intended to harm to an individual, for example, the sharing of revenge porn.

Extremely violent content, referred to in the bill as abhorrent violent material, is defined as any audio or visual material that records or streams, for example, a terrorist act, murder, torture, rape or kidnapping.

The government aims to enforce these measures through a combination of infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, and injunctions. Guardian Australia understands the commissioner will rely on existing cooperative relationships with service providers in the first instance. However, enforcement measures against companies overseas can be pursued by the commissioner, so long as the alleged victim is Australian, a spokesman from Fletchers office said. However, he added current compliance with take-down notices was high.

The release of the draft bill on Wednesday actions key policy taken to the 2019 election, the government said, with submissions accepted until 14 February.

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@Rika_Furude
Is this, like, a real thing?

So like, people that send death threats or harass people on their IRL webpages right? Not like trolling on a stupid messageboard.

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In the grand scheme of things, Australia is a pretty irrelevant country with only what? 20 mil people in total? A drop in the bucket.

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AssultTank posted...

That won't be abused at all. <_<

Reminder that this mod said thar hatespeech should.'t be banned and then had the topic locked when people called him out on his bullshit. He should really shut the fuck up and fuck off.

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nfearurspecimn posted...

So like, people that send death threats or harass people on their IRL webpages right? Not like trolling on a stupid messageboard.

nfearurspecimn posted...

So like, people that send death threats or harass people on their IRL webpages right? Not like trolling on a stupid messageboard.

Thats dangerous!

Is using the Internet to deliberately anger people for amusement a misuse?

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darkmaian23 posted...

@Rika_Furude
Is this, like, a real thing?

probably. i havent heard anything about it because i live under a rock or something. but its probably just like legit actual harassment, like PMing a kid on facebook saying you're going to rape or kill them or something. Which is fair enough and should have already been illegal

theres no way they are banning "trolling" or even just "heat of the moment" stuff like raging in a video game

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How did the nation known for deadly nature and hardened kriminals become so full of delicate babies?

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This topic is a good example of people who read the headlines but not the content.

Anyone who thinks a law meant to reduce chid sexual abuse online is a bad thing needs to take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror.

Rika_Furude posted...

theres no way they are banning "trolling" or even just "heat of the moment" stuff like raging in a video game

yeah it's not like australia has a history of making things illegal that absolute should not be illegal

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First my hentai figures and now internet trolling. Australia is out of control!

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GiggetySplicer posted...

That's only one small part of it. Looks like you're the type of person who knee-jerk and easily swayed by "thinkofthechildren!" covers.

Thanks for attempting to make a personal attack on me. Says all I need to know about your motives in this discussion.

16-BITTER posted...

How much is 555k dollarydoos in actual money

Like 60 million usd

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good; and its for bullying/threatening

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Good

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GiggetySplicer posted...

That's only one small part of it. Looks like you're the type of person who knee-jerk and easily swayed by "thinkofthechildren!" covers.

"Think of the children" as well as "anti-terrorism" bills are more often than not used to obscure terrible legislation that wouldn't be able to pass otherwise

Here in the US, I remember one bill using that guise after SOPA failed

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Soon:
Tech boom in New Zealand.

CalypsoDoom posted...

CE would be shut down. People have literally threatened my life

The person you quoted literally used to harass me on here too

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lmao, imagine if it works

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AssultTank posted...

I disagree with banning any speech unless you can adequately answer the following three questions;
1) Who exactly will determine what speech falls under the ban?
2) How will you define the banned speech so that it won't affect speech you think is fine?
3) How will you guarantee that the law banning speech won't be abused to target political opponents or unintended targets in the future?

The issue is that the second and third questions are inherently unanswerable. No matter how well you define it, or how much trust there is in the person who makes the decision at the time of passing, eventually one of two things will happen.

A) The law will be reinterpreted and speech that previously was fine will get banned under the new interpretation of the law.
B) A new person who will abuse it gets the power to determine what falls under the law.

But you're not going to bother to argue these points and will instead just attack me again.

Any speech that targets a group of people and says they are inherently bad (Muslims are terrorists, gay people are abhorrent, black people are criminals etc) should be banned. Speech that is inciteful should be banned. No, I will not defend your right to say that Muslims should be deported or banned. Get the fuck out with that shit.

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AssultTank posted...

I'm not even going to engage with you any further ever again.

Im sure that hes heartbroken

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xSLlZh9yelk

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This is why you cant have people that dont understand the technology making laws about it.

How the fuck would this be enforced? Are they making a whole cyber unit to check everything?


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AssultTank posted...

And who makes the determination? The president? The police? The Injustice Department?

And you realize that this type of definition is very open to being applied to you as well. Any all X are Z statement could be reasonably interpreted to fit as disallowed under the law. Like, "White people are privileged" could easily be construed by a governmental entity as hate speech with your definition.

Sure but being privileged isn't something that you can be discriminated against. Me saying Catholic priests are child rapists? That's discrimination.

I don't quite understand what you mean by who makes the determination. If you can't understand that saying "all Muslims are terrorists" is hate speech, inciting and should not be allowed then you're just a bad person.

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Thats not trolling. Those are threats and offensive material. Trolling is more along the lines of being annoying on purpose online.

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It's like that country is run by a pearl-clutching middle-aged soccer mom lol

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mrgoatthief posted...

Are you worried? You probably should be electrode

Why? I dont bully people online like some people itt

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SquirtleSkwad posted...

It's like that country is run by a pearl-clutching middle-aged soccer mom lol

We basically are tbh

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TreyFlowers posted...

We basically are tbh

I'm so sorry about your alcohol prices. Genuinely.

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I find it hard to care about bullies being punished, but you know this will be abused and used to censor much more than that sadly.

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The Coalition can't even get internet infrastructure right but think they can police huge social media sites. Good luck.

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If some basement dweller get slapped with that fine, it'll be just as funny as good trolling.

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SquirtleSkwad posted...

I'm so sorry about your alcohol prices. Genuinely.

Yeah, hah. You could just remove "alcohol" though.

But honestly Australia is a fantastic country to live in. Universal healthcare, guaranteed superannuation (401k), 4 weeks paid vacation every year that accrues, we are basically COVID free. It's just expensive as shit and there's no culture

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