Labor dials up rhetoric on social media giants, accusing them of becoming platform for ‘criminals and cranks’

Tougher laws to force social media giants to remove violent content and misinformation could be one step closer as one Labor minister says platforms have become a “playground for criminals and cranks”. Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has been accused of acting “above the law” after he announced the platform would challenge orders by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to remove footage from Sydney’s stabbing attacks. The spat has renewed the Albanese government’s push for misinformation laws that were shelved late last year. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said X had become a “playground for criminals and cranks” and a “factory for trolls and bots and misinformation”. He also had choice words for Meta, who is ending deals to pay Australian outlets for news content, as being more interested in taking journalists off the platform than criminals. “None of these places are above the law. They’re not a sovereign state,” he told ABC Radio. “They can’t be a lawless program, a playground for criminals and cranks. New laws need to be put in place, and this government is determined to do that.” Mr Jones also slammed the tech giants for not doing enough to combat scams on their platforms, suggesting a mandatory code of conduct could be on its way. “For parts of industry, not all of it, to say ‘don’t worry, just leave it to us and we’ll put in place voluntary codes’, give me a break,” he said. “They’ve had forever to put in place mechanisms that would work and, as I’ve said, (they are) more determined to remove journalists from their platform than criminals. “I think we know where the priorities lie, and it’s not in protecting the users of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and places like this.” On Sunday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton left the door open to backing the misinformation laws he previously described as “Orwellian” if they struck the right balance. Foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham reiterated his party would back moves to “put in place the types of powers or penalties that make social media companies pay attention”. “The idea that it is ‘censorship’ to say that imagery of a terrorist attack, of a stabbing incident, should not be able to be broadcast in an unfiltered way for all to see, children to access and otherwise, is an insulting and offensive argument,” he told the ABC. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young likened Mr Musk to a “cowboy” in the “wild west online”. “The problem we have is that for far too long these big tech giants have gotten away with little to no regulation, they don’t pay tax, and no wonder they think they can give a middle finger to the government,” she told the ABC. “It is the wild west online and it’s just not on … no wonder that cowboys like Elon Musk think that they can keep on making money and profiting off outrage and hatred.”