29 June 2019

...Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison earned a significant victory at the G20 summit by convincing all leaders of the world's major economies to agree to take action, inspired by the live-streamed Christchurch massacre.

"We urge online platforms to step up the ambition and pace of their efforts to prevent terrorist and VECT (violent extremism conducive to terrorism) content from being streamed, uploaded, or re-uploaded," the statement released on Saturday said.

..."The impetus of this is to say to the companies, you have the technology, you have the innovation, you have the resources, and now you have the clear communicated will of the world's leaders to get this right," he told reporters in Osaka.

...It's hoped the G20 statement will now give leaders the political support to enact individual initiatives in their own countries.

"Global leadership, domestic action: it's now up to them to take their actions to protect not only Australian citizens but citizens all around the world from the internet being used in this way," Mr Morrison said.

Australia's laws have been held up as the gold standard for others to follow.

...Australia's move received strong support from Canada's Justin Trudeau, French president Emmanuel Macron, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and the European Union. German chancellor Angela May and UK prime minister Theresa May also spoke in support of the initiative.

It's understood the US was concerned asking social media companies to halt the publication of such content would constitute censorship, but ultimately signed on after language in the statement was tempered.