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Long-awaited online harms bill proposes higher sentences for spreading hate online

The Liberal government is proposing heavier sentences, new regulatory bodies and changes to a number of laws in new legislation to tackle online abuse.

It says it wants to ensure these rules apply to social-media platforms and proposes to "create authority to centralize mandatory reporting" of such offences "through a designated law enforcement body." "We support the federal government's goal of helping young people have safe, positive experiences online and have spent more than a decade developing industry-leading tools and policies to protect them. Instead of meeting that self-imposed deadline, the government waited until March of 2022 to announce that it had created an expert advisory group "as the next step in developing legislation to address harmful online content."

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