Internet bureaucrats protect us against everything except online crime

If Facebook can throttle my posts on COVID-19, they can detect these frauds before they even get going.

And every other body connected with policing crime, scams, or Internet safety should have a quick turnover of top staff.

They have one job to do ...

ASIC would obviously be first off the block. Imagine being given the information almost a year ago and doing nothing with it.

The matter only seems to have come to light due to a company called IFW Global blowing the whistle in a submission to a parliamentary committee.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant should be next.

Her job is outlined under Section 27 of her act, and includes 19 separate headings of responsibility, such as "to promote online safety," "to support and encourage the implementation of measures to improve online safety for Australians," "to coordinate activities of Commonwealth Departments, authorities and agencies relating to online safety for Australians," and "to support, encourage, conduct, accredit and evaluate educational, promotional and community awareness programs that are relevant to online safety for Australians."

In one of the most obvious areas of harm she appears to have failed on all these accounts.

But instead of worrying about real harms online, the Commissioner has been busy picking fights with X (formerly Twitter) and giving it notices to take down content while leaving much more horrendous content online on other platforms, like Facebook, alone.

ACMA also shows itself to be completely incompetent.

It regulates these social media platforms and has negligently allowed them to display fraudulent ads and earn income from them.

Then there is every police force in the country which all have Cybercrime units. It appears none of their plods stroll out on the digital beat. They should be much better placed to deal with these issues than the fancier regulators because they are policemen rather than bureaucrats.

So what are their priorities?

The law enforcement online in this country seems to be yet another example of what I suspect is a national syndrome. Rather than being "doers," our ruling class have become just talkers who think that issuing a media release with good intentions promising great outcomes is the same thing as actually doing the job.