The latest effort to shore up the Morrison government’s re-election pitch as tough on big tech has come in the form of promises to pass legislation beefing up the power of Australia’s media watchdog to deal with misinformation and disinformation, which they acknowledge won’t happen until after the election.
On Monday, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced that the government would accept all the recommendations of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)’s review into how digital platforms were responding to disinformation.
These recommendations include giving ACMA the ability to mandate and enforce an industry code or standards, as well as the ability to compel tech companies to provide Australia-specific data.
These changes come as part of a suite of laws and proposed bills created by the Morrison government that is touting its ability to crack down on social media companies and keep Australians safe online.
ACMA’s Adequacy of digital platforms’ disinformation and news quality measures report was completed in June 2021. Part of its remit was considering the effectiveness of tech industry group Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI)’s voluntary industry code on misinformation and disinformation.
The report commended industry for their self-regulation efforts but, given that it was delivered to Fletcher just three months after the code was brought into effect, didn’t make any judgements about the effectiveness of the code. It did however recommend refinements to the code, such as tightening definitions and creating industry standard baselines for performance.
Broadly, ACMA called for five recommendations, including giving the power to enforce the DIGI misinformation code and give them formal information-gathering powers — recommendations that Fletcher agreed to in full.
While the announcement mentioned that these reforms will only be pursued in the second half of the year, placing them after the election, the changes mark a notable change from the tech industry self-regulatory approach only recently embarked on by this government.
DIGI also welcomed the report, but was less full-throated in their support for the recommendation of giving the watchdog the power to enforce codes by only supporting it in principle.
Tech policy think tank Reset Australia’s Dhakshayini Sooriyakumaran trumpeted the changes as more proof of the failure of self-regulation, but lashed the DIGI code for failing to regulate the systems, processes and algorithms of platforms.
“It is disappointing we are heading into an election without systemic regulatory protections in place,” she said.
