Australia blocks web access over mosque attacks

According to a news report, eight websites cannot be accessed by Internet users in Australia because they have been blocked for defying instructions to delete videos of the New Zealand mosque attacks. 

According to the report, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Australia were ordered to “block access to the websites after they continued to show footage from the deadly shootings at the mosques earlier this year.” Further, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant in a statement on Sunday 15 September said “we cannot allow this heinous material to be used to promote, incite or instruct in further terrorist acts.”

Grant further stated that “it is now an offense in Australia for companies such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, which owns video sharing site YouTube, not to remove any videos or photographs that show murder, torture or rape without delay.” The eSafety Commission, according to the report will monitor the blocked sites for six months to be sure that the offensive contents are removed before the ban can be lifted.