Chalmers urged to act to counter China downturn threat; Social media giants face big fines in revamped laws

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has stared down Coalition criticism of her proposed bill to stamp out social media lies, arguing the storm of misinformation during the recent Sydney stabbings showed why such laws were urgently needed.

Rowland told this masthead yesterday a storm of damaging online lies during Sydney’s stabbing attacks has fuelled the case for legislating multimillion-dollar fines for social media giants hosting misinformation, pledging to take on X and Meta to prevent “devastating” social harm.

On ABC radio this morning, she said no responsible government would spurn a crackdown on social media firms, even though a backlash over a potential impingement on free speech forced the government to temporarily shelve the laws last week.

“If we needed to see any case study about what can happen when misinformation spreads at speed and scale, we only need to look at what happened in Western Sydney the other night,” she said.

“The destruction, the damage to public property threats to life and health.”

Since the Bondi and western Sydney church stabbings, attention of politicians and analysts has turned to the role of social media and Australian influencers including the anti-Western, Russia-aligned X users Simeon Boikov, known as the “Aussie Cossack”, and Maram Susli, who uses the name Syrian Girl online.

Both falsely suggested to large followings that the Bondi attacker was a local Jewish man, while Boikov cited rumours, since proved false, suggesting a mob cut fingers off the 16-year-old who allegedly stabbed preachers.

Injuries to the boy’s hand were actually sustained in the act of stabbing, NSW Premier Chris Minns was forced to clarify.

ESafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant this week used her legal powers to demand X, formerly known as Twitter, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, take down distressing footage of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being attacked during a live-streamed service.

A spokeswoman for the commissioner said late yesterday she was satisfied with Meta’s attempts to comply but was still assessing X’s response.