Australia is set to introduce some of the toughest social media legislation worldwide after Parliament voted yesterday to pass changes that could allow judges to send social media executives to jail over content hosted or streamed on their platforms.

The law has drawn criticism from the social media lobby and free speech advocates. It was drafted by the governing party in response to attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month. The attacker live-streamed the massacre on Facebook, and the recording later spread to other platforms.