Australia's top cop continues pile-on against Elon Musk's X and warns of ... trends now
Australia's top cop has lashed social media companies for not doing enough to protect children being targeted by 'a cauldron of extremist poison'.
Australia's Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has lashed social media giants like X and Meta - which runs Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp - for being 'indifferent' to law enforcement efforts to curb unrestrained 'misinformation', sexual exploitation and criminal activity.
In an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Kershaw will warn that social media companies are allowing the spread of what authorities regard as misinformation.
'Social media companies are refusing to snuff out the social combustion on their platforms,' the top cop said.
'Instead of putting out the embers that start on their platforms, their indifference and defiance is pouring accelerant on the flames.'
It comes after graphic footage of two stabbings incidents in Sydney spread like wildfire on platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
On April 13, video of Joel Cauchi running through Westfield Bondi Junction as he fatally stabbed six people did the rounds on social media.
Australia's Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw (pictured) warned social media companies like X and Meta are actively spreading misinformation online
Just days later, a Christian bishop was stabbed by an alleged terrorist during a service at a western Sydney church that was being live-streamed.
Mr Kershaw will say footage of these attacks, as well as misinformation that circulated on social media, inflicts harm on Australians.
The top cop also warned young people were at risk of being extorted or sexually exploited on the open or dark web by 'digital-world deceivers'.
'We need to constantly reinforce that people are not always who they claim to be online; and that also applies to images and information,' he will say.
'Criminals, pretending to be someone else, use social media to trick youth into sending intimate images of themselves, and then blackmail them for money.
'Fearing their images will be sent to loved ones, young people have taken their lives.'
His comments comes as X, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, was ordered by the Australian government via the Federal Court to remove footage of the church attack from its platform.
The company said it had complied with the order in Australia while also taking out a two-day injunction - but argued a global takedown order was
