00:01This AI tool known as Areto has been used for the last few months by a handful of Labor
00:08MPs trialling it after they heard about it from their colleagues in New Zealand.
00:13Effectively, what this tool does in an automated way is scan through the comments on Facebook,
00:19Instagram, TikTok and other platforms and hide from view content that's deemed abusive
00:25and threatening. Of the sample of 22 MPs and Senators that have been using this platform
00:32over the last three months, there were 460,000 comments that they received across all of their
00:39platforms. Of those comments, about half were screened for being abusive or threatening,
00:46so hundreds of thousands of abusive comments just across that selection of 22 MPs. In particular,
00:53within that amount that was screened, there were about 5,000 that were deemed to be either direct
00:59threats or using violent language. I'll censor some of the language now for you, but the threats
01:04essentially were for things like saying that an MP should be hanged, that they should be assassinated,
01:11saying that they should be shot. So, direct threats on the safety of these MPs and Senators. And this
01:16platform being used by particularly women in the party to try and essentially clean up the comment
01:23sections of their social media, because these MPs are not only having to deal with this abuse
01:29themselves, but they have staff that would otherwise have to manually go through and moderate these
01:34comments. There's also, from some of the MPs that I've spoken to, some fears that it's had a real chilling
01:40effect on actually genuine contributions, you know, criticism of policies or feedback for the government,
01:46because people don't want to engage due to this really febrile environment that's existing online.
01:52One of the most prominent people trialling this technology at the moment is Finance and Women's
01:57Minister Katie Gallagher. She was talking about the just extraordinary volume of threats and abusive
02:03comments that are made toward her on social media, and noting that particularly for women,
02:08a lot of the commentary can be gendered. It's largely being used by women at the moment,
02:14although men are able to use the tool if they choose. But I think all MPs and Senators get this
02:21abuse and threats of violence, but the nature of abuse towards women members of parliament is
02:27slightly different. So it tends to be more sexualised in nature, more threats around harming your
02:32children and your family. And I think that's what we're capturing in this data.
02:38Claire, there's a lot of discussion around in parliament at the moment, isn't there,
02:41about the tone of political debate. What are MPs saying about the role that social media in
02:46particular is playing there? Yeah, so speaking to the women that have been using this platform
02:50to screen these threats, one of them was Housing Minister Claire O'Neill, and she made the point that
02:55this really shouldn't have to exist, this third-party AI platform, that it should be on social media
03:01companies themselves to take more responsibility for the harm that is perpetrating on their platforms.
03:08As earlier today, Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton was asked about the role of social media in
03:14monitoring and lifting that tone of debate online, and he pointed to the government's proposed digital
03:20duty of care as a way in which the government is seeking to put responsibility back onto the platforms.
03:26He said, technology is creating new ways for threats to be conveyed, not just to parliamentarians,
03:32but to all Australians. We want to make sure that the government is on the front foot in that regard.
03:37That is why we have the digital duty of care.
03:42So the digital duty of care bill is before the House at the moment. The government wants to pass that
03:47by the end of the year. They'll probably need the Greens to do that. The coalition deciding at a party
03:52room
03:53today that they won't be backing that bill. So if it does pass and that impetus is put on the
03:59tech
03:59platforms, it will be likely with a Labor-Greens deal in the Senate.
