Facebook owner Meta Platforms had received legal letters by an Australian regulator, Apple and Microsoft have been demanding that they share their ways for stamping out child abuse material on their platforms or face fines.

HIGHLIGHTS
Laws came into effect in January in order to compel the technology giants
Australia’s hardline approach would get underscores by the threat
The figures were observed by the eSafety Commissioner

The e-Safety Commissioner, a body discovered to safeguard the internet users, which has mentioned that it used laws that came into effect in January in order to compel the technology giants to disclose measures that they were taking to notice and to take away abuse material within 28 days. If they failed to do so then the businesses would each face a fine of A$555,000 ($383,000) per day.

Australia’s hardline approach would get underscores by the threat in order to regulate Big Tech firms since 2021. It has so far included laws which were forcing them to pay media outlets for displaying their content and laws making them hand over the details of anonymous accounts which would post defamatory material.

In a statement, Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has mentioned that “this activity was no more confined to hidden corners of the dark web was prevalent on the mainstream platforms we and our children would use it daily.” She added “As additional firms move towards encrypted messaging services and would deploy options like livestreaming, the concern would be such that this horrific material would spread unchecked on these platforms.”

The owner of Skype has mentioned that the company had received the letter and planned to reply within 28 days.

The owner of WhatsApp has even mentioned that the company was still reviewing the letter however continued to “proactively have interaction with the eSafety Commissioner on these vital issues.”

The eSafety Commissioner had observed figures which were provided by the U.S. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which had mentioned that this year it had received 29.1 million reports about child abuse material from web firms, of that simply 160 were from Apple whereas 22 million were from Facebook.

Also Read: As Market for ‘Digital Collectibles’ Tanks Meta Linked Instagram’s NFT Posts to Facebook