Anthony Albanese says new online regulations to crack down on dangerous algorithms is a “priority” to put the onus on tech giants amid warnings that they fuel extremism.
The Prime Minister raised the importance of the upcoming Digital Duty of Care legislation in Parliament on Thursday after ASIO warned of rising online radicalisation.
Mr Albanese warned the path would be “complex” he called for the Parliament to “be courageous” and adopt a bipartisan approach against “unaccountable” tech giants with “extraordinary power”.
“We’re working on that as a priority,” he said.
“Algorithms drive people towards more and more extreme positions. These companies, which are unaccountable… and have extraordinary power.
He said internet users could start off clicking on mainstream issues to be influenced by “Nazi level propaganda” and “calls for violence”.
During the domestic spy agencies latest threat assessment, Director-General Mike Burgess said tech giants had a responsibility to help fight extremism.
“It’s something that many of us have actually pressed into,” Mr Burgess said.
“I’ve been on the record before talking about how young minds can go from like a couple of clicks to some really bad material that actually can radicalise them quickly.
“I get the commercial benefits of this, but they need, I think, they have responsibility.
“So, everyone is working hard with them to try and get them to help.”
Mr Albanese also said it was not just violence but extreme porn was an increasing issue, with hospital admissions of strangulation and anal tearing “growing at an extraordinary, horrific rate”.
“What too many young men are seeing online is normalising behaviour — that is anything but normal,” he told Parliament.
“And we need to be really conscious as a society about this.”
The PM said he wanted the digital duty of care to build on the “bipartisan social media ban” and consult with the Opposition on how to expand the protective duty even further.
“Clearly we are going to need to do more, and that’s what the digital duty of care is about,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Albanese had revealed for the first time that his government had actually expected more retaliation from social media giants when they first implemented the social media ban.
Speaking at a CEDA conference in Canberra, Mr Albanese claimed that the support of other nations for his “historic” restrictions had likely made Australia’s path easier.
“The social media ban was really historic,” he said.
“It was a pretty gutsy call to do it, because we thought the blowback from global powerful corporations would be bigger than it has been.
“Perhaps because people have jumped on board.
“There’s 16 countries on board across Europe, US, states across the board, and that’s because people are really conscious about the impact that social media is having.
“We need to really engage in a way that builds that social cohesiveness and not consensus but having civil debates as well.
“We’re losing some of that capacity because of algorithms.”
It comes after Australian Federal Police boss Krissy Barrett and law enforcement counterparts in Five Eyes gathered in London recently to discuss the issue.
The leaders made a united pledge to better protect children and vulnerable people from serious online crime.
The group agreed algorithms actively push harmful material to young people, which radicalises them and normalises dangerous or “abhorrent” views.
“Algorithms feed harmful content to children, radicalising and normalising abhorrent views in criminal echo chambers,” a read out from the meeting stated.
“Social media enables criminals to contact thousands of potential victims using nothing more sophisticated than a smart phone.
“Criminals are now exploiting AI to rapidly accelerate this harm.”
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