Algo opt-out laws hit roadblock + The Cornell 7 case goes beyond toxic frats

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:08)

Hi, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Welcome to The Briefing. The Cornell 7 case out of the US has sent shockwaves not only through America, but right across the globe, with the spotlight placed firmly on fraternities and the hyper-masculine culture within them. But how do they work, and how is sexual violence able to be perpetrated within their confines?

Pietro Sasso (0:28)

When you have these hyper-competitive concepts around social dominance and masculinity, and that becomes a part of the culture of the fraternity, that's where you have a lot of concepts that a fraternity can be extremely dangerous for women.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:45)

That discussion is coming up in the second half of this episode, but first it's time for the headlines with Chris Spyrou. It's Wednesday, the 14th of October.

Chris Spyrou (0:56)

Morning Sacha, Anthony Albanese has formally weighed in on the proposed live stream of the execution of a US prisoner, saying the government will do whatever it can to prevent it being shown in Australia, and he's also labelled it a porran. The Prime Minister has stopped short, though, of saying exactly what he's done so far to stop the event making it to Aussie screens.

Anthony Albanese (1:16)

These things are not just as simple as turning off a light switch and we will do what we can to shut it down.

Angie Bell (1:23)

And is anyone giving you any advice that there might be some options available to you?

Anthony Albanese (1:26)

We are receiving that advice.

Chris Spyrou (1:27)

That's him on the ABC there, but he did go on to say that he has made representations to the social media companies.

Anthony Albanese (1:35)

We're going to make it very clear, and I'm making it very clear to them right now, that as far as I'm concerned, this has no place in our country. It's not a part of our values that have been long standing.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:47)

Donald Trump is facing growing backlash over the announcement by his War Secretary, Kate Hegseth, that the firing squad execution of Nadal Malik Hassan would be live streamed, the US's first public execution in almost 100 years. The US military's Catholic Archbishop has joined the condemnation of the move, asking any Catholic assigned to the firing squad to ask to be excused. Hassan is scheduled to be executed in December.

Chris Spyrou (2:12)

Yeah, and an update from yesterday's headlines where we were talking about the fact that there was a lot of pressure on the eSafety Commission to come out and use its powers.

The eSafety Commission came out to say that it doesn't have powers to stop the livestream, only that it can issue removal notices once the content is live and published on different sites. Interestingly, Albo petitioning the social media companies is probably the best route here. We do know that they have powers to suspend livestreams, but that's a power that rests with them and it's a choice that they have to make.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:44)

Yeah, and something else I found interesting that Albo talked about in that interview Patricia Carvelis was like the social license of these companies and anyone who lets footage of this air, whether it's on a social media platform or on a TV network or whatever, that people won't respect that, that people will look at that and say, well, that doesn't line up with our values. However, I've got to say, I'm sure there are people who are just morbidly curious and who would click on it and want to see it.

Chris Spyrou (3:09)

Yeah, well, we did get a comment on our post that we put up and someone was like, well, you can just turn it off. You don't have to watch it. The thing is, it's like if it does hit your feed and your kids feed. Yeah, intense.

Look, we'll pivot now into another story. Sticking with politics, it looks like the Greens and the Coalition will team up to force Labor's digital duty of care laws to a Senate inquiry, a move that could delay the passage of the bill to next year. A reminder, these are the laws that would let us opt out of the algorithm and for social media companies to prevent harmful content making it onto their platforms.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:42)

The opposition is against the bill claiming it amounts to censorship and has all but ruled out negotiations on the legislation. The Greens however are open to passing the laws, but they want bigger penalties for tech giants that don't comply. So under Labor's proposed laws, they'd cop a fine up to $109 million.

But communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson Young wants to massively increase that to 10% of a platform's global revenue. So it's a significant amount of money, however some question whether any amount of money would be enough to kind of force them to act on this. They seem very hesitant. Interestingly Metta's head of global safety is travelling to Australia this week, and she is going to meet with Hanson Young to discuss the matter. So it'll be interesting to see what representations the Greens make themselves to Metta.