Australia’s anti-trolling bill criticized by senators, online abuse victims and organizations alike

Labor Senator Kim Carr criticized anti-fraud laws proposed by the federal government on Thursday, saying the legislation was “totally inadequate” as critics say it could create many undesirable consequences.

The proposed anti-trolling law seeks to force social media platforms to create claims plans that allow people to make complaints about potential defamatory material and receive information about who posted such material for the purpose of kicking off proceedings juridical.

Carr, vice chair of the Senate committee tasked with reviewing anti-fraud legislation, said: “Every submission today says this Bill is completely flawed in terms of drafting and has unintended consequences. desire.

Carr made those remarks at the first committee hearing to consider the Bill, where various individuals and organizations criticized the Bill’s construction.

Nyadol Nyuon, an African-Australian human rights campaigner and lawyer who has been a victim of racial abuse online, told the Senate committee that the high cost of initiating defamation proceedings would be a barrier. large for many Australians in exercising the Bill’s powers.

Despite her legal expertise, Nyuon said she won’t be able to use the proposed Bill’s powers on her own due to this hurdle.

“Its sheer mass makes it almost impossible to deal with the individuality that comes with it,” she said.

“I can assure you even as a very privileged woman doing a full-time job, I would think twice before putting my money in a defamation claim.”

According to Electronic Frontiers Australia, brought a defamation lawsuit in Australia priced from AU$20,000 to AU$80,000.

Another well-known victim of online abuse has appeared before the committee, former TV presenter Erin Molan, who said the construction of the current Bill would “exclude 99.9% of Australians” from the base association seeks to remedy defamation.

“It would be completely unattainable, when the cost of living is already too high for people to find a lawyer and act,” Molan said.

Nyuon added that the powers the Bill grants are very narrow in the sense that it “doesn’t seem to be keeping up with how online abuse can change”.

She told the committee that there had been various examples of immigrant women reporting abusive material online to Facebook, with the social media platform refusing to take it down because it was not in the English language. You or the abuse are disguised as insulting rhetorical questions. .

When asked how the federal government can better tackle online abuse and defamatory material, Nyuon testified that more resources should be provided to the eSafety commissioner, who has right to order social media companies to provide basic registrant information to the commissioner when serious cyberbullying occurs.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant also appeared before the committee on Thursday, breaking the Bill due to its mention of defamation under the guise of anti-fraud laws.

In Inman Grant’s testimony before the committee, she said the laws proposed by the federal government combined serious online abuse with defamation.

Inman Grant said: “To confuse libel with trolls is to mix apples with oranges. This general term of trolling doesn’t just trivialize serious forms of harmful online abuse – you can troll someone over and over. no need to smear them,” said Inman Grant.

Inman Grant said one-third of complaints filed with her office regarding online cyberspace abuses involved defamatory content, which is outside of the commissioner’s jurisdiction.

The committee is set to provide its findings later this month as Liberal Senator and Attorney General Michaelia Cash previously said anti-fraud legislation was one of the key items, along with federal social media pollwhich the Coalition wants to get rid of before this year’s federal election.

However, on Thursday afternoon, Carr noted that the Bill is unlikely to pass before the federal election as only three days are expected to sit before the election gets underway.

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