Facebook and Google won't be losing any sleep about Australia's latest social media crackdown.

The Australian parliament has passed a new law following the mosque attacks, requiring websites to immediately take down violent material.

It threatens social media bosses with fines or even jail time.

However, barrister Chris Patterson, told Mike Hosking most of the websites are based in the US - not in Australia.

"The Americans have a very entrenched right of freedom in expression and speech and the Australian legislation appears to not only curtail that but draw a very clear bright line."

"Facebook and YouTube are probably the two big players, both of which are in the US and neither of which are going to take much attention orn care a lot about Australian legislation."

The law would make it a crime for social media platforms not to remove "abhorrent violent material" quickly. The crime would be punishable by three years in prison and a fine of A$10.5 million ($11m) or 10 per cent of the platform's annual turnover.