Australia’s top cop has slammed social media companies for not doing enough to protect children who are being targeted by “a cauldron of extremist poison” online.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has lashed social media giants like
In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Kershaw will warn that social media companies are actively spreading disinformation online.
“Social media companies refuse to extinguish the social combustion on their platforms,” the top cop said.
“Rather than extinguish the embers starting on their platforms, their indifference and defiance pours an accelerant on the flames.”
It comes after graphic images of two stabbing incidents in Sydney spread like wildfire on platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
On April 13, a video of Joel Cauchi running through Westfield Bondi Junction with a 12-inch knife and his bloodied victims made the rounds on social media.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw (pictured) warned that social media companies such as X and Meta are actively spreading disinformation online
Just days later, a bishop was stabbed by a suspected terrorist in an incident accidentally broadcast live from a church in Sydney’s west.
Mr Kershaw will accuse the images of these attacks, as well as the misinformation circulating on social media, of harming Australians.
The top cop warned that young people are at risk of being extorted or sexually exploited on the open or dark web by ‘digital world deceivers’.
‘We must continually emphasize that people online are not always who they say they are; and that also applies to images and information,” he will say.
‘Criminals, pretending to be someone else, use social media to trick young people into sending intimate images of themselves and then blackmail them for money.
“For fear that their images will be sent to their loved ones, young people have taken their own lives.”
His comments come as X, owned by US billionaire Elon Musk, was asked by the Australian government to remove graphic content.
X was ordered by the federal court on Monday to prevent all users from viewing images related to an alleged terror attack by an 16-year-old boy on an Assyrian bishop during a live streamed service in a church in western Sydney on 15 of April.
The company said it had temporarily complied with the order in Australia while it fought it in court – but argued that a global takedown order violates the principle of freedom of expression – a point Musk has personally emphasized.
X and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant will return to court on Wednesday after the social media giant was granted a two-day injunction to remove the content.
Mr Kershaw has flogged social media giants like
If he doesn’t comply with a court order to remove posts, X could be fined nearly $800,000 a day and executives could be prosecuted for contempt of court.
The expected X will argue for a longer-term ban.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan said during an appearance on the Today Show on Wednesday that Australians have the right to freedom of expression.
“You’re not going to stop these things from circulating on the internet because the video remains freely available, despite what the eSafety commissioner says, on Facebook, on Meta and of course on Twitter,” he said.
“More people have seen it because of the moral panic about it over the past week. You’re not going to stop this. If you try, you’ll only fuel the conspiracy theories. That’s why we need more freedom of speech to fight this, not less.”
On Tuesday, Musk shared a post saying that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had given X free advertising. He said it was the only social media platform that had not bowed to the eSafety Commissioner’s demands.
“I want to take a moment to thank the Prime Minister for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful platform,” Musk said.
‘Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, as the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ demands, what will stop any country from controlling the entire internet.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is only stored on servers in the US. Should the eSafety Commissioner (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on earth?’
Elon Musk has hit back at the eSafety commissioner over attempts to censor content on
Mr Albanese hit back, labeling Mr Musk “arrogant” for defying demands from eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant – a former Twitter employee – who he said only enforced “common decency”.
‘He [Mr Musk] is someone who is completely out of touch with the values that Australian families have,” Mr Albanese said.
“He is putting his ego and his money into filing a lawsuit for the right to post more violent content that will cause suffering to the people on his platform.
“Other social media operators have accepted the eSafety Commissioner’s decision.”
Asked whether the commissioner could be given stronger powers or whether access to X should be stopped, he said the government would look at what action could be taken.
“Nobody wants censorship here – what we want, however, is the application of some common sense so that you don’t show and propagate violence online,” Albanese said.