Massive social media firms ought to must proactively take away dangerous content material from their platforms, endure common “threat assessments” and face hefty fines in the event that they don’t comply, based on an unbiased overview of on-line security legal guidelines in Australia.
The federal authorities this week launched the remaining report of the overview carried out by skilled public servant Delia Rickard, greater than three months after receiving it.
The overview comes a couple of months after Meta introduced it’ll cease utilizing unbiased reality checkers to reasonable content material on Fb, Instagram and Threads.
Rickard’s overview incorporates 67 suggestions in complete. If carried out, they might go an extended option to making Australians safer from abusive content material, cyberbullying and different potential harms encountered on-line. They’d additionally align Australia to worldwide jurisdictions and deal with most of the identical issues focused by the social media ban for younger individuals.
Nonetheless, the suggestions comprise severe omissions. And with a federal election looming, the overview is just not more likely to be acted upon till the subsequent time period of presidency.
Addressing on-line harms at supply
The overview recommends imposing a “digital responsibility of care” on giant social media firms.
The federal authorities has already dedicated to doing this. Nonetheless, laws to implement a digital responsibility of care has been on maintain since November, with discussions overshadowed by the federal government’s social media ban for beneath 16s.
The digital responsibility of care would put the onus on tech firms to proactively deal with a spread of particular harms on their platforms, reminiscent of youngster sexual exploitation and assaults based mostly on gender, race or faith.
It could additionally present a number of protections for Australians, together with “simply accessible, easy and user-friendly” pathways to complain about dangerous content material. And it will place Australia alongside the UK and the European Union, which have already got comparable legal guidelines in place.
On-line service suppliers would face civil penalties of 5% of world annual turnover or A$50 million (whichever is bigger) for non-compliance with the responsibility of care.
Will Meta roll out its new content material moderation strategy in Australia instantly?Or will the corporate first overview its obligations beneath the On-line Security Act? 🤔 #AusLaw #AusPol
— Leanne O’Donnell (@mslods.bsky.social) 2025-01-07T14:30:57.249Z
Two new lessons of hurt – and expanded powers for the regulator
The suggestions additionally name for a decoupling of the On-line Security Act from the Nationwide Classification Scheme. That latter scheme legislates the classification of publications, movies and laptop video games, offering rankings to information customers to make knowledgeable selections for choosing age-appropriate content material.
This shift would create two new lessons of hurt: content material that’s “unlawful and critically dangerous” and “authorized however could also be dangerous”. This consists of materials coping with “dangerous practices” reminiscent of consuming issues and self-harm.
The overview’s suggestions additionally embody provisions for expertise firms to endure annual “threat assessments” and publish an annual “transparency report”.
The overview additionally recommends adults experiencing cyber abuse, and kids who’re cyberbullied on-line, ought to wait solely 24 hours following a criticism earlier than the eSafety Fee orders a social media platform to take away the content material in query. That is down from 48 hours.
It additionally recommends reducing the edge for figuring out “menacing, harassing, or critically offensive” materials to that which “an atypical affordable particular person” would conclude is more likely to have an impact.
The overview additionally requires a brand new governance mannequin for the eSafety Fee. This new mannequin would empower the eSafety Commissioner to create and implement “necessary guidelines” (or codes) for responsibility of care compliance, together with addressing on-line harms.
The necessity to sort out misinformation and disinformation
The suggestions are a step in direction of making the web world safer for everyone. Importantly, they might obtain this with out the issues related to the federal government’s social media ban for younger individuals – together with that it may violate youngsters’s human rights.
Lacking from the suggestions, nonetheless, is any point out of potential harms from on-line misinformation and disinformation.
Given the velocity of on-line info sharing, and the potential for synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments to allow on-line harms, reminiscent of deepfake pornography, this can be a essential omission.
From vaccine security to election campaigns, consultants have raised ongoing issues about the necessity to fight misinformation.
A 2024 report by the Worldwide Panel on the Data Setting discovered consultants, globally, are most nervous about “threats to the data surroundings posed by the homeowners of social media platforms”.
In January 2025, the Canadian Medical Affiliation launched a report displaying individuals are more and more searching for recommendation from “problematic sources”. On the identical time expertise firms are “blocking trusted information” and “profiting” from “pushing misinformation” on their platforms.
In Australia, the federal government’s proposed misinformation invoice was scrapped in November final 12 months as a result of issues over potential censorship. However this has left individuals susceptible to false info shared on-line within the lead-up to the federal election this 12 months. Because the Australian Institute of Worldwide Affairs stated final month:
misinformation has more and more permeated the general public discourse and digital media in Australia.
An ongoing want for schooling and help
The suggestions additionally fail to offer steering on additional instructional helps for navigating on-line areas safely within the overview.
The eSafety Fee presently offers many instruments and sources for younger individuals, dad and mom, educators, and different Australians to help on-line security. But it surely’s unclear if the change to a governance mannequin for the fee to enact responsibility of care provisions would change this instructional and help function.
The suggestions do spotlight the necessity for “easy messaging” for individuals experiencing hurt on-line to make complaints. However there’s an ongoing want for instructional methods for individuals of all ages to stop hurt from occurring.
The Albanese authorities says it’ll reply to the overview sooner or later. With a federal election solely months away, it appears unlikely the suggestions will likely be acted on this time period.
Whichever authorities is elected, it ought to prioritise steering on instructional helps and misinformation, together with adopting the overview’s suggestions. Collectively, this could go an extended option to maintaining everybody secure on-line.
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