‘Fly swatter for killer bees’

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion last Thursday that she has been handed inadequate tools to fight online hate, likening her powers to being “given a fly swatter to kill a swarm of killer bees”.

Julie Inman Grant said responsibility for tackling online antisemitism must shift decisively onto tech platforms, which she said already had sophisticated moderation systems but chose not to deploy them fully in Australia.

She warned that a promised Commonwealth “digital duty of care” could take up to two years to legislate – too long for the Jewish community to wait – and proposed making an existing voluntary EU online hate code mandatory as an interim fix.

Inman Grant said research has shown antisemitic hate content has spiked around milestone national and world events.

The commission also heard from three police forces about their engagement with the regulator.

NSW Police Counterterrorism and Special Tactics Command commander Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker described the protocols for removing harmful online content, particularly in crisis situations involving live-streamed material. She said there was room to improve their speed by contacting the eSafety Commissioner and the National Situation Room simultaneously.

She also told how eSafety staff had stopped attending joint public presentations with police after feeling unsafe amid protest activity in 2024.

Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad head Detective Acting Inspector Carl Keenan told of a June incident in which a social media platform refused a police request to remove content, but then took down the material after the matter was referred to the eSafety Commissioner.

Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whiteley revealed that a memorandum of understanding with the eSafety Commissioner, under negotiation since 2022, had never been finalised, and that the force had had no significant direct engagement with the regulator on online hate and extremism.

By contrast, the Australian Federal Police described its collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner as “very positive and effective”.

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said the regulator’s expertise on how platforms operated had become integral to AFP investigations, including Special Operation Avalite targeting prolific spreaders of antisemitic material, and provided an important means of disrupting harmful content where criminal prosecution was not viable.