Live streaming of murder: Regulatory responses and challenges

Abstract

The live-streaming of murders such as the mass killing at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand has demanded a reconsideration of the roles and responsibilities of online intermediaries including social media providers. Australia has enacted legislation creating criminal offences for failure to notify and remove 'abhorrent violent material', defined as self-produced audio/video of specified criminal acts including murder. This includes recordings of live-streamed crimes. This chapter analyses the new legislative provisions, and notes some of the challenges in imposing criminal or other legal liability on online intermediaries for offensive and illegal content. Show more