Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government will do everything it can to stop the “abhorrent” live stream of a firing squad execution in the United States from being shown in Australia. Source: ABC News.
Last week, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at a military base in Texas in 2009, would be available for the public to watch, but Vice-President JD Vance cast doubt about whether that would occur.
The potential live stream has elicited a strong response in Parliament, with federal members across the political divide urging the government to “pull every single lever” to block the broadcast.
Mr Albanese told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program yesterday said his government would do whatever it could, but acknowledged it was not as simple as “turning off a light switch”.
“Australia has had a bipartisan position of opposition to the death penalty and I find the idea of live streaming the death of anybody completely abhorrent,” he said. “We should do whatever we can to stop that occurring.”
He said the government was seeking advice on its options.
On Monday, the eSafety Commission said it could not prevent Australians from seeing the execution.
“While eSafety does not have powers to proactively prevent a live stream from occurring online, online services have responsibilities under Australia’s online safety regulatory framework to protect users from harmful material,” a spokesperson said.
Mr Albanese said he would make it “very clear” to social media platforms that the content had no place in Australia.
“I think anybody broadcasting this will damage their own reputations as well. They have a social responsibility here to do the right thing,” he said.
The contacted Google, Meta and TikTok to see if they plan to restrict the content, but has not received responses.
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Social platforms have ‘responsibility’ to block US execution live stream, Albanese says (By Ewa Staszewska, ABC News)
