Eight websites will be banned in Australia for continuing to host footage of the Christchurch terror attacks.
For the first time, Australia’s eSafety Commission will exercise its ‘unprecedented’ powers to direct Internet service providers to block websites hosting the violent content.
“There is no other country in the world that has a commission set up to protect the safety of its citizens and block abhorrent violent material from the Internet,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told SBS Dateline.
The horrific massacre, which occurred more than six months ago, was streamed live on Facebook for 17 minutes, with a manifesto published online.
The Federal Government introduced new legislation a month after the attack, requiring ISPs and websites to remove “abhorrent violent material” or face harsh penalties, including up to three years in prison.
Internet service producers, such as Telstra, proactively blocked users from 43 websites for hosting the video of the Christchurch shooter murdering more than 50 people.
Commissioner Grant said that eight websites continue to host the offending material online. Now, the commission will direct ISPs to ban these websites.
The direction requires ISPs to implement a six month block during which time the eSafety Commission will assess if the website has removed the content. If offending material has been taken down, the ban will be lifted.
“Most of the offenders are fringe websites hosting gore content and seek to incite violent,” Commissioner Inman Grant said.
“A number of them also host children sexual abuse material. One is an anti-Islamic blog.”
Dateline has been told that the eSaftey Commission has spoken directly to websites telling them to take down the content.
In April, legislation was passed penalising websites and social media companies for failing to remove violent content. Since then, 413 complaints have been made to the commission. Ninety-three per cent was child sexual abuse material, seven per cent was violent content.
The Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher said in a statement that this measure will not be a silver bullet.
“Website blocking is not a universal solution to online harms, but it is important that this option be available to the eSafety Commissioner in extreme cases such as this,” Minister Fletcher said.
“Australian internet service providers acted quickly and responsibly in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Christchurch in March this year to block websites that were hosting this harmful material.”
“ISPs called on the Government to provide them with certainty and clarity in taking the action they did, and today, we are providing that certainty.”
