PM’s big tech fight hits UN

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison took his global fight against social media giants to the United Nations yesterday as he warned that terrorists and violent extremists were “weaponising” the internet.

Mr Morrison told a UN panel how the Christchurch massacre exposed “significant shortcomings” in policing of popular online sites. As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern listened, Mr Morrison implored leaders to join his crusade for change to prevent the “terrible events” in her country from being repeated.

After the panel, co-chaired by Ms Ardern, French President Emmanuelle Macron and King Abdullah of Jordan, Mr Morrison announced a new content-blocking and crisis framework would be established, as well as a pledge for tech firms to help solve the problem. But in a thinly veiled criticism of social media firms, Mr Morrison told the leaders’ dialogue on terror-related issues — on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly — how the “rules of the physical world must apply in the digital”.

“There should be no leave passes or different tolerances for different types of behaviour along the lines that exist in real space,” he said.

“We now face a new threat, as we all know, to peaceful societies. And the terrorists and violent extremists are weaponising the internet by spreading hate. The industry built this new digital world and we have to work closely with them to ensure we can deal with the technologies that can help protect us from this digital world as well.”

Mr Morrison flew in from Chicago yesterday, after giving a business speech in the US Midwest.