David Coleman, Shadow Communications Minister, raises an alarm about potential severe infringements on free speech due to the new Australian bill.
In a move to curb the spread of misinformation, the Australian government has drafted legislation that seeks to impose hefty penalties on major tech and social media platforms if they fail to clear such content from their spaces.
Under this proposed legislation, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the nation’s media overseer, would gain the power to compel digital platforms like Google and Facebook to keep a record of misinformation and disinformation instances.
These tech companies would then be mandated to submit these records to the ACMA whenever requested.
Additionally, the bill grants the ACMA the authority to introduce an industry-wide “code of practice” aimed at countering misinformation. The power to conceive and put into effect its own industry standards would lie with the ACMA.
Any noncompliance with this proposed standard could lead to significant financial penalties for these tech behemoths. The proposed fines can go up to $4.6 million ($6.88 million AUD) or a steep 5% of global turnover, which for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, would amount to a staggering $5.3 billion ($8 billion AUD).
As per a report on June 26, Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland stated that the current Labor government “is dedicated to the online safety of Australians.”
The upcoming bill will ensure that “the ACMA has the requisite powers to hold digital platforms responsible for any misinformation or disinformation shared through their services,” Rowland explained.
Rowland further added that the bill would enable the AMCA “to assess the measures employed by these platforms to maintain compliance.”
However, the bill has sparked concerns regarding its potential to severely impact freedom of speech, especially due to the ambiguous definitions of misinformation and disinformation.
The draft bill classifies misinformation as “unintentionally incorrect or deceptive content” and disinformation as “intentionally spread false information aiming to cause significant harm.”
Expressing concerns, David Coleman, the Shadow Minister for Communications from the rival Liberal Party, stated, “This policy area is intricate, and any government overreach must be meticulously avoided.”
“The public has the right to know the deciding authority when it comes to classifying a content piece as misinformation or disinformation,” he emphasized.
The public consultation period for the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 concludes on Sunday, Aug. 6.
The Australian government has shown increased efforts to regulate tech giants. In one such instance, Google had to pay a fine of $40 million ($60 million AUD) on Aug. 12 for deceiving Australian consumers about data collection practices.
In another significant move in February 2021, Facebook temporarily restricted Australian users from viewing or sharing news content on their feeds due to a disagreement with the government over proposed media bargaining laws.