Mr. Toby Dagg:

I thank Senator Cassells. It is fair to say that our experience with the efficacy of the reporting processes that are provided by the services and platforms has been mixed. We have had some very direct engagement with some of the major platforms in respect of deficiencies that we have identified in recording, for example, an account carrying child sexual abuse material. We provide in that way clear illustrations as a consequences of our investigations. In some cases, that has yielded some positive results, which we have been pleased to see, and some marked improvements in the context of removing any ambiguity regarding aspects of the complaints process. However, there remain some deficiencies and we have been pointing to those on a fairly consistent basis. Our experience has been that some of the glaring holes are slow to be remedied and repaired. Why that might be the case is a matter for speculation. There is definitely work that continues to have to be done.

Senator Cassells referred specifically to Instagram. We are pleased to see that Instagram has improved the protective tool set made available to its users, particularly in dealing with unwanted messages and detection of abuse in some of the content that passes over Instagram. That is very welcome, but there is a lot more to do.

Our real concern is with those platforms, services and sites that serve a very specific interest, namely, the malicious distribution of harmful content serving a particular audience who really do not care all that much about the impact on victims, and, in fact, take some pleasure from it. They currently have very poor reporting mechanisms. It is difficult to identify who is responsible for the services. What the legislation that the Commissioner referred to seeks to do is provide multiple entry ways into a regulatory action. If we cannot get any response from the content service or the operator of a website, we can identify the hosting service and push at that door. If that fails or if removal notices are ignored, we can go to additional mechanisms such as seeking to have the material delisted from search engines, for example, through a power that the Commissioner wields. What we found effective and what will be apparent in the new legislation is that it is good to have fallback points so that you can increase your regulatory spread and exercise ever more serious measures in order to achieve a form of compliance and remedy the particular ill which is causing harm to a complainant.