"…Pickles tried to say that people might be sharing the content “out of outrage” or to “raise awareness,” both very strange answers.
“Accounts dedicated to distributing, accounts engaging in this, we want off Twitter, off X as fast as possible. But there are cases globally where people do share this content out of outrage. And in those cases, we do look at whether removing the content is the appropriate response,” Pickles said at the August 2023 hearing.
But Australian senators clearly weren’t having it.
“Well, I’m sorry, but if I’m outraged by some content, I’m not going to share that to make the point,” Australian Senator Helen Polley told Pickles during the hearing. “But what I would do is, if I am a consumer of that type of material, you’re now just saying, if I just share that in the pretense that I’m outraged, that’s okay.”
Polley pointed out that Australia had laws against allowing people to share child abuse images online, just as every other country does.
“Well, it’s actually a crime. It’s a crime, and it should be suspended permanently,” Polley continued. “There is no excuse whether you’re posting something through outrage, which to me is not logical, that your account should not be permanently suspended.”