A Labor MP has taken a swipe at Reddit, questioning why individuals would put money into a social media platform that she claims rewards “conspiracy theorists” and “violence”.
Victorian backbencher Michelle Ananda-Rajah made the feedback in a speech to the Home of Representatives on Thursday evening as she referred to as on the Opposition and crossbench to again .
The invoice, which is but to be tabled, is being overhauled after attracting criticism final yr. The draft proposal sought to curb the web unfold of false and deceptive info, however there was concern from some quarters that it may jeopardise free speech.
It is anticipated to be launched to parliament someday this yr.
Reddit launched on the New York Inventory Trade final week and its worth soared to US$10 billion ($15.3 billion). Supply: Getty / Spencer Platt
Reddit final week made its US inventory market debut and soared to a $10 billion ($A15.3 billion) valuation — a consequence that Ananda-Rajah mentioned “leaves me chilly”.
“What’s the market rewarding — conspiracy theorists, extremism, violence?” she mentioned.
She additionally criticised Meta — the mum or dad firm of social networking web site Fb, which she mentioned ought to have been “strangled” when it launched 20 years in the past.
Ananda-Rajah mentioned social media had created a “litany of social harms, from extremism, scams, and ” and that it had negatively impacted the psychological well being of kids.
She mentioned social media corporations wanted to be extra clear about their algorithms, enhance their content material moderation, and referred to as for enhanced “aged verification mechanisms that hold youngsters out of grownup content material”.
Meta declined to remark, whereas a Reddit spokesperson pointed to its content material coverage — which states, amongst different issues, that it’ll ban customers who incite violence or promote hate primarily based on identification or vulnerability — and its security weblog.
The spokesperson additionally pointed to a New York Occasions article, printed final week, that labelled its content material moderation a “success story”.
Australia’s on-line security regulator to Meta, Google, X, Telegram, WhatsApp (owned by Meta), and Reddit, ordering them to stipulate their methods to cease the unfold of dangerous content material by terrorists and violent extremists.
They’ve 49 days to adjust to the authorized discover or face the prospect of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in penalties.
“Sadly, it’s a rising drawback,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant mentioned final week. “And what we’re seeing is so many of those platforms are enabling themselves to be weaponised by violent extremists as a result of consideration and battle sells.”
In the meantime, the federal authorities is reviewing Australia’s on-line security legal guidelines, with the ultimate report set to be handed down within the second half of this yr.
