The spread of false theories online following multiple stabbing incidents in Sydney has prompted renewed hope of bipartisanship on the federal government’s misinformation laws.

While a federal proposal to combat misinformation online was delayed due to freedom of speech concerns, there has been a fresh push following a stabbing at a Sydney church on Monday and the Bondi Junction attack.

Under the laws, tougher penalties would apply for social media companies who fail to remove misleading content from their platforms.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said he was hopeful the coalition would lend its support following the stabbing attacks.

“I certainly hope that the events of the last week, including the proliferation of misinformation on social media, has given everyone thought about why we do need stronger laws,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

“The technology we are dealing with is rapidly changing, and it shows why the laws we have in place need to rapidly change as well.”

Social media companies have come under fire after graphic images from both stabbing attacks and misinformation about them were allowed to stay up online following the incidents.

Senator Watt said the previous laws regarding social media content had not kept up with the technology.

“What we want to do is go further and mandate the kind of laws that apply around misinformation, rather than just have a voluntary code that can just be ignored by social media giants,” he said.

“The last week showed that we need to do more.”

The coalition initially laid out concerns with the misinformation bill in 2023, arguing it would stifle normal political debate.

Opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham said support for the misinformation laws would depend on the bill’s contents, but supported stronger action on social media companies.

“We want to support the government where they do so, where it is effectively holding social media giants to account,” he told Sky News.

“What we don’t want is a situation where the government sets up some regulator that has little control over removing that type of violent content, but ends up sitting in judgement about whether or not what people say in a political debate … is true or not.”

It comes as social media platform X vowed to fight orders from Australia’s online safety watchdog to remove posts about the church stabbing.

“While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally,” the platform’s global government affairs account posted on Saturday.

“We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court.”

The requests for the takedowns have also been criticised by X’s owner Elon Musk.

Senator Watt said the billionaire had demonstrated contempt for Australians for the refusal to take down the violent content.

“The public’s had a gutful of these narcissistic billionaires, who think they are above the law,” he said.

“They have a responsibility to do the right thing by consumers.”

This post was originally published on Michael West.