Comments on New Australian Law on Online “Abhorrent Violent Material”

Australia has adopted a law that would penalize platforms and their executives for a failure to control what it calls “abhorrent violent material.” The law is deeply problematic, as was the extraordinarily compressed timeframe for its adoption (basically two days). The Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, Professor Fionnuala Ni Aolain, and I had intended to provide comments to the Government as the legislation was being considered — but the Government acted faster than we could. You may find our comment on the new law here. From Freedex.