NEWS Trolls in line for big fine

RAMPANT social media trolling has sparked the nation’s top cyber watchdog to demand powers to fine trolls up to $105,000.

The eSafety Commissioner is seeking authority to compel adult trolls and tech giants Facebook, Instagram and Google to remove cyber bullying content that is threatening, intimidating and harassing.

Commissioner Ms Inman Grant – a former Twitter and Microsoft executive – said more action was needed against the tech companies and that they needed to do more to protect users.

“There are things that can be done to target the tech companies and encourage the companies to harden up their platform and make this toxicity harder to proliferate,’’ she said. “We constantly hear them saying we are doing privacy reviews, we are doing security reviews, why aren’t we extending this to safety?’’

Ms Grant wants to extend her powers to compel child users to take down content but wants this power extended to adult trolls and for them to be fined up to $105,000 a day if they post image-based abuse.

Among cases that have prompted the nation’s eSafety Commissioner to intervene have been white supremacists crowd sourcing the address of a female public figure to go and attack them, asking for a violent school brawl to be taken down, trolls posting on a child’s profile, who had a development disorder, to kill herself, images or videos depicting terrorist activities, a website selling counterfeit copies of Australian proof of age documents and a website that promotes methods of suicide.