Australia Proposes New Laws to Address Misinformation on Social Media Platforms

Australia is looking to follow the lead of Europe by implementing new fines for social media platforms that enable the distribution of misinformation within their apps.

As per a new bill put before Australian Parliament, key regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) could soon be given additional powers to investigate and prosecute social platforms for both misinformation and disinformation shared by users.

The laws would implement more transparent reporting practices for social media companies, and set requirements for the removal of detected misinformation in each app. And if platforms fail to comply, they could be fined up to 5% of their global revenue.

As noted, the proposals, and penalties, largely mirror the same rules now in place in Europe under the Digital Services Act (DMA). The DSA aims to provide additional protections against “illegal and harmful activities online”, which also extends to the spread of disinformation, as it relates to illegal content.

The problem, however, is that there’s no universal definition of what misinformation and/or disinformation is, which means that any such regulation also invariably puts more power into the hands of local regulators and governments to potentially silence dissenting opinion, dependent on their interpretation of the law.

Which makes enforcement complex, and as such, it’ll be strongly opposed by the platforms themselves. Indeed, X owner Elon Musk has already voiced his criticism of the proposal, suggesting that it will impact free speech.

It’s difficult balance, because as Australian Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has noted:

“Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy. Doing nothing and allowing this problem to fester is not an option.”

Indeed, according to the Australian Media Literacy Alliance, 80% of Australians say the spread of misinformation on social media needs to be addressed.

It’s an ongoing concern, but at the same time, without clear definitions of what qualifies under these parameters, there are inherent risks in enforcement.

The broader push, however, has likely been exacerbated by Musk himself, who clashed with the Australian Government earlier this year on a previous content removal request.

Following the stabbing of a church leader in Sydney back in April, Australian officials requested that social media platforms remove a video of the incident, due to concerns that it was fueling racist violence. X refused, saying that Australian officials had no right to request a blanket removal of the content, which then led to a public back and forth between Musk and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

That incident sparked a further examination of the laws and processes in place, which has led to this new proposal for more definitive regulation of social media platforms.

So it’s X specifically that’s really the target here, and Musk once again looks set to stand in defiance of Australian orders, even though X has complied with similar takedown requests in other nations.

Essentially, Elon’s grandstanding on cherry-picked “free speech” concerns is now prompting further regulations to reign him in, while also bringing every other social media app under the same umbrella.

Which will likely lead to future conflict over Australian removal requests, and eventually, significant fines for X as a result. And if Musk refuses to comply, Australia could go the way of Brazil, and cut off the app entirely in the region.