Tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Meta face fines of almost $800,000 a day if they don’t come clean on their progress in combating child exploitation and abuse material on their platforms. Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
The companies have been given six months to report back to Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, on efforts to lift their standards as part of a tough new approach requiring half-yearly disclosures for the next two years.
Ms Inman Grant said the ultimatums were given after the companies admitted alarming failures in addressing harmful content on their social media sites, devices and cloud storage software.
She cited one example of Microsoft taking up to 19 days to respond to reports of child abuse.
“It’s a form of wilful blindness,” she said.
“These are the largest, most wealthy, powerful, technology-focused companies in the world. They’re not only not doing everything they can – they’ve shown there is a way, there’s just no will there.”
Tech companies are already required to report to the Government on steps they are taking to minimise harmful content on their sites and platforms, but Ms Inman Grant said the watchdog intensified its approach after finding the organisations were dragging their feet.
The companies have until February 15 to provide their first round of responses and face fines of $782,500 for each day they don’t comply.
The federal Government is also shaping up against tech companies over the online proliferation of images of violent incidents such as the Wakeley church stabbing, which social media company X Corp refused to completely remove over freedom of speech concerns.
Ms Inman Grant on Tuesday told a Senate committee scrutinising government reforms to criminalise the sharing of deepfake sexualised material that the onus should be on artificial intelligence companies to do more to prevent their technology from being used to generate the content, and apps that “nudify” people should be treated in the same way as tracking apps used for coercive control.
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‘Wilful blindness’: Big fines for tech giants that ignore abuse material (By Angus Thompson, Sydney Morning Herald)
