Social media misogyny centre stage at Canberra hearing on digital platforms
A viral TikTok suggesting young men should look for a girlfriend they can lift up and threaten with violence has taken centre stage at a parliamentary hearing into social media and its impact on Australians.
The video, drawn from the popular whensexhappens podcast, states men should not date women who are more than “two-thirds” of their body weight.
“The woman should feel smaller,” the male podcaster says.
“He needs to feel like he could kill her but he is not going to.
“If I’m holding the girl and subconsciously she knows if I wanted to, I could pick her up and throw her into the wall, but I’m not, she’s like, ‘OK, I trust him, he can control himself’.”
National Women’s Safety Alliance executive director Katherine Berney said the government should consider censorship or penalties for the video as part of larger reform to beat back what she called a “tsunami of misogynistic content” on social media platforms.
Camera IconNational Women’s Safety Alliance executive director Katherine Berney says there’s a ‘tsunami of misogynistic content’ on social media platforms Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
“The idea of freedom of speech … in Australia obviously, that’s a concept we have,” she said on Monday morning at the joint select committee on social media and Australian society hearing in Canberra.
“The idea you can say whatever you want without consequence is ridiculous.
“What is the consequence for that (whensexhappens video) currently? That has 30 million views.
“They don’t have the right to have that opinion without consequence.”
The committee, led by Newcastle Labor MP Sharon Claydon, is investigating the use of social media age verification for Australian children, tech giant Meta’s decision to withdraw from the News Media Bargaining Code, the role of journalism, news and public interest media to counter misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms, how algorithms and recommender systems influence what Australians see and other issues related to harmful or illegal content disseminated over platforms, including child abuse material.
Ms Berney said a “multi-layered and collaborative approach” would be required to address the challenges posed by social media.
Camera IconThe committee is investigating enforcing age verification on social media platforms. NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar Credit: NCA NewsWire
“We can’t shame people for their need for community, for their need to feel connected,” she said.
“(But we) can provide a better framework, a safer framework.”
She said the social media giants should be obliged to prevent damaging content from reaching their platforms and remove content if required.
She also recommended the government provide Australians with “social media self-defence” courses to help them navigate the chaos of the online world.
The dark components of the social media age have exploded into view across multiple submissions to the committee.
International Justice Mission Australia chief executive David Braga, in his opening statement, said platforms like Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were being used to transmit and livestream sick child sex abuse material, and Australians were “consistently ranked as a high consumer of this abuse”.
“Online sexual exploitation of children often takes the form of livestreamed child sexual abuse, whereby offenders pay traffickers to commit sexual abuse of victims, often young children, while offenders watch and direct this abuse live for a fee,” he said.
“The abuse routinely includes forcible sexual penetration. Children are forced to engage in sex acts with other children, are sexually abused by an adult, and sometimes harmed in other degrading ways, such as in bestiality.
“Simply put, it is child sex abuse, live, on demand”.
The nexus with social media comes because arrangements for these sessions are often made by the perpetrator and the facilitator communicating through everyday social media platforms.
“Livestreamed abuse sessions are then often conducted on everyday platforms such as Microsoft Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp,” Mr Braga said.
“Australia has a moral obligation to address this harm because we are consistently ranked as a high consumer of this abuse.”
A final report from the committee is expected in November.
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