Anthony Albanese has played down US President Donald Trump’s opposition to Australia’s proposed digital duty of care laws, insisting the plan will not give the government the power to censor political thought or police the internet.
Overnight, the Trump administration warned the federal government that its plans to boost online safety through new protections for users risked becoming a mechanism for “viewpoint-based censorship” and called for American platforms to be exempted.
Restating strong opposition to measures the White House considers “extraterritorial censorship of protected speech by Americans online”, the US has used a submission to the Albanese government’s public consultation process to express serious concerns about Australia’s communications minister having legal powers to declare “foreseeable harm”.
The intervention coincided with the prime minister’s attendance at a cocktail party for world leaders hosted by the US president, Donald Trump, at the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, New York time. It will also embolden the Coalition, which opposes the duty of care laws on the grounds they would hand too much power to the government to regulate online content.
Asked about the US view, Albanese said he was standing up for Australia’s national interest by improving online safety, including for children.
“It’s not about giving government control, it’s about giving people back control over what they receive on their devices, which is why it is framed in that way,” he said.
“The fact is that we have released an exposure draft of legislation. We haven’t even introduced the legislation before Parliament.
“We will engage constructively. I hope the whole of the Parliament supports it. This should not be a partisan issue. This is about giving power back to Australians rather than big global tech companies.”
On Wednesday, Albanese posted a photo of himself and Trump on the sidelines of the UN summit, with a caption: “Always good to catch up with @potus”.
A submission published on the website of the US embassy in Canberra on Tuesday night said that the proposed model of protection for users under 18 would unfairly affect users in the US.
“A framework that empowers governments to enforce vague definitions of ‘harm’ risks becoming a mechanism for viewpoint-based censorship, as platforms will be incentivised to over-moderate speech that should be protected to avoid regulatory penalties,” it said.
“If Australia compels platforms to aggressively filter content in algorithmic feeds to satisfy a government mandate, and such filtering draws in protected speech, the effect on a disfavored speaker or media source’s reach would not be meaningfully different than outright removal.
“The US government would likely consider such a measure as facilitating censorship.”
The White House had previously warned about measures that could impose unfair new restrictions on American companies, but the submission represents a public escalation of the Trump administration’s opposition.
It comes days after Trump’s new envoy to Australia, the former congressman David Brat, arrived in Australia to take up his post in Canberra.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced plans to introduce a digital duty of care for internet users under 18, requiring popular platforms, online games, apps and AI chatbots to protect children from specific harms.
They will include pornography; content that promotes, encourages or accelerates eating disorders; misogynistic content; content that glorifies crime or life-endangering stunts; and content that causes serious mental health distress, including abuse and bullying.
The regulator, the eSafety commissioner, will have the power to issue removal notices to social media companies, with platform operators required to document measures taken to address online harms.
Designated harms could be disallowed by parliament under the plan.
The announcement coincided with plans by the Albanese government to require platforms to allow account holders to opt out of the powerful algorithms pushing content into their feed.
The US requested Australia withdraw any plans to mandate platforms algorithmically suppress content “based on ambiguous government-defined safety criteria.”
It said legally required design features, especially when applied to algorithms, could affect what users see, say, and hear around the world.
“Platforms generally build and deploy product features at a global scale rather than market-by-market; forced platform design changes to mitigate Australia-specific risks could result in systemic changes that affect how users everywhere, including Americans, experience these platforms and reach audiences.”
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has called the new laws “a global reckoning” for big tech, following the government’s introduction of a social media ban for under 16s.
