Expert says proposed social media defamation bill ‘doesn’t get there yet’

Legal experts have raised concerns about a federal push to introduce tougher new defamation laws for social media platforms.

Lawyers say the proposal will increase legal costs and make it more difficult for people who are defamed online to get posts removed.

While changes have been made to the bill recommended by a Senate committee, experts say there are still fundamental flaws with the proposal.

Many say it will do little to reduce trolling, or help ordinary people.

“What the federal government is saying is they’re going to give a special protection to Facebook if Facebook puts in place a complaints mechanism which they then comply with,” defamation lawyer Matt Collins explained.

Mr Collins says while there’s “the germ of a good idea” at the heart of the proposal, there are still problems with it.

“We want to stop people from thinking that trolling is okay, and that the internet is a law-free space,” he told Ross and Russel.

“Secondly, we want to encourage more responsible behaviour by social media operators, so we want to give them an incentive to do the right thing.

“The federal proposal doesn’t get there yet.”

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