Social App taken to court over terror related content
Chelsea Heaney |
Australia’s online watchdog has launched legal action against a popular messaging app, accusing it of failing to remove terror-related content.
Telegram could face fines of more than $50 million after the Office of the eSafety Commissioner said it would take it to the Federal Court for allegedly allowing violent videos, including the Bondi attack, to remain on its platform.
“When platforms are alerted to terrorist content, they must act,” eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
“It is more important than ever that digital platforms meet their obligations to protect the Australian community.”
“This content remained publicly accessible on the service long after Telegram had been put on notice by user reports. Some material had been highly visible on the service for three months,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“This case concerns content linked to some of the most notorious acts of known extremist violence in recent history.”
Telegram faces fines of up to $54.6 million if it’s found to have failed to comply with the Online Safety Act.
Ms Inman Grant said her office had been in talks with Telegram since 2024 and received five months of “unresponsiveness” before the company came to the table.
“We’ve had engagement with Telegram since that time. But unfortunately they’ve still kept a permissive hosting environment for terrorist content,” she said.
“This only serves to desensitise, to normalise and to sometimes radicalise … we know that this is also a platform that’s used to plan attacks.”
“No platform is above the law, and eSafety will continue to use the powers available to us,” she said.
Ms Inman Grant did not rule out applying to the Federal Court for some services to be banned.
“We’ve never used those powers … but we’ll see how this all plays out and whether that kind of action is warranted,” she said.
“We are looking at a range of platforms.”
The Commonwealth backed the commission’s legal challenge.
“Australia has no tolerance for big tech failing to prevent, detect and remove pro-terror material from their service,” Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
“Telegram needs to explain to Australian users – and the Federal Court – why it has allegedly not complied with Australian laws.”
Telegram is a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app and, according to the company’s website, is one of the top five most downloaded apps in the world with over 1 billion active users.
Telegram has been contacted for comment.
AAP