Australia could jail social media execs for streaming acts like New Zealand massacre | CBC News

Critics warn that some of the most restrictive laws about online communication in the democratic world could have unforeseen consequences, including media censorship and reduced investment in Australia.

The Liberalgovernment introduced the bills in response to the March 15 attacks in Christchurch in which an Australian white supremacist apparently used a helmet-mounted camera to broadcast live on Facebook as he shot worshippers in the two mosques.

Australia's government rushed the legislation through the last two days that Parliament sits before elections are expected in May, dispensing with the usual procedure of a committee scrutinizing its content first.

The opposition's spokespersonon the attorney general portfolio, Mark Dreyfus, committed his centre-left Labor Party to support the bill despite misgivings.

Dreyfus described the bill as "clumsy and flawed," and the timetable to pass it as "ridiculous." Labor first saw the legislation late Monday.

an association representing the digital industry in Australia, including Facebook, Google and Twitter said taking down abhorrent content was a "highly complex problem" that required consultation with a range of experts, which the government had not done.

"This law, which was conceived and passed in five days without any meaningful consultation, does nothing to address hate speech, which was the fundamental motivation for the tragic Christchurch terrorist attacks," the group's managing director Sunita Bose said in a statement.

"This creates a strict internet intermediary liability regime that is out of step with the notice-and-takedown regimes in Europe and the United States, and is therefore bad for internet users as it encourages companies to proactively surveil the vast volumes of user-generated content being uploaded at any given minute," Bose added.