Aussie PM secures G20 support for social media content crackdown

Leaders of every G20 nation including China, Russia, the United States and Germany on Saturday signed an accord championed by Morrison to take on technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter who fail to remove violent content from their platforms.

Morrison first signalled that he would make the issue a priority at the G20 meeting in Japan in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which Australian man Brenton Tarrant allegedly killed 51 people.

The attack was live-streamed on Facebook for 17 minutes, with the footage then shared millions of times on other platforms.

"Australia has been working tirelessly since the horrific Christchurch terrorist attacks to send a clear message to internet companies, together with our international partners, about the special responsibility those companies have in the fight against terrorism," Morrison said in a statement.

"Today's joint statement from the G20 Leaders' Summit is an unprecedented coordinated effort and show of unity in the fight against terrorist and violent extremist content shared online," Morrison said.

"The world's citizens rightly have high expectations of internet companies that they must not let their platforms be exploited," he said.

"It is time for them to act," Morrison added.

The prime minister met with Australian executives of technology companies only two weeks after the Christchurch shootings.

After the meeting, Morrison announced the introduction of new laws that made it a criminal offence not to remove abhorrent violent material as quickly as possible.

If found guilty under the new laws, executives could face up to three years' imprisonment and their company hit with a fine worth up to 10 percent of its annual global turnover.