Social Network Operators Must Be Held Accountable For Trolls - Australia`s Prime Minister

Australia`s Prime Minister Scott Morrison held social network operators to account for anonymous "trolls" and said that they had no interest in making the online world safe

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2021) Australia`s Prime Minister Scott Morrison held social network operators to account for anonymous "trolls" and said that they had no interest in making the online world safe.

"That would be an admission that they have no interest in making the online world safe if they were to do that," Morrison said answering the question on Facebook allegedly pulling the plug on Australia over new anti-trolling laws aimed at stopping online abuse.

The minister also said that it was not free speech to hide in one`s basement as a masked troll and abuse, harass, and stalk people. That was not freedom, that was harassment and stalking, and there should be no place for that, according to the politician.

"If the social media company lets you do that with a mask on, then we'll hold them to account," Morrison stated.

In September 2021, CNN has shut down its Facebook pages in Australia due to the nation's top court ruling regulating that Australian media outlets were responsible for readers` comments. CNN asked Facebook to disable comments on the social network in Australia, but Facebook refused to do so.

It came after a former teenage prisoner Dylan Woller sued media companies over Facebook comments posted below articles about his mistreatment in detention. The reason was a television story, filmed in December 2016, about the detention conditions in prisons in northern Australia.