Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told social media companies they must take responsibility for terror attacks and violent crimes being shared online.
Mr Morrison has demanded Facebook and other global giants make major changes in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, which was live-streamed online.
A tense summit in Brisbane on Tuesday did nothing to deter the government from pursuing a legislative crackdown.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said the tech titans were "thoroughly underwhelming" in their attempts to talk the government out of pursing a "big stick" approach.
"There was unfortunately nothing in that room that would discourage the government from looking at a legislative solution to try to ensure that much, much quicker action is taken," he told reporters afterwards.
"It's totally unacceptable to the Australian public not merely the terrorist are weaponising social media as a platform to spread hate and terror, but the children in this country, a 10 year-old for instance, could log on to Facebook and witness mass murder live."
The federal government is also establishing a task force - which will include representatives from social media platforms and internet service providers - to investigate short and medium-term responses.
Under the legislative changes, companies would be breaking Australian law if they did not take down footage of terrorist acts immediately.
Social media executives could face a jail sentence under the proposed laws.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said he would support tougher penalties to ensure social media giants acted quickly.
Facebook took down 1.5 million posts of the footage of the Christchurch shootings but says none of the 200 people who watched the live video of the massacre immediately reported it.
The first user report about the original video was made 29 minutes after it was posted - 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended - the company said last week.
