CANBERRA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton has escalated pressure on websites that spread "evil" messages after shooting rampages in the United States.
On Saturday, a 21-year-old white male opened fire at shoppers at a Walmart in the border city of El Paso in Texas of the United States, leaving at least 22 dead and 26 injured. The suspect, identified as Patrick Crusius and already taken into custody, is believed to have acted on anti-immigrant sentiment.
According to the Australian SBS News, American authorities have cited a manifesto posted online and attributed to suspect Patrick Crusius. The four-page statement posted on online message board 8chan, which is often used by extremists, called the attack "a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas."
Speaking on Seven Network TV on Tuesday, Dutton said websites must do more to prevent messages inspired by hate from being spread on their platforms.
"They are making a lot of money and they are involved in spreading these hate messages and we need to stop it," he said. "If people in Australia can access that evil content, we want to make sure we can pull it down.
"We need to get the content down and we need some of these companies to do a lot more than what they are doing at the moment," he added.
This government has a history of taking a stand against violent online content, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in June securing an agreement from world leaders at the G20 summit in Japan to crackdown on the spread of violent acts online following the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were allegedly killed by Australian man Brenton Tarrant.
Footage of the Christchurch attack was live-streamed on Facebook and shared millions of times.
