Australia has announced fines for tech companies over failure to prevent the spread of mis-and-disinformation on their social media platforms, according to an official statement.
Tech companies will be fined about 5 per cent of their global revenue if they fail to contain misinformation online. Social media firms will have to establish codes of conduct highlighting their strategies and containment measures for misinformation, according to the government.
These codes of conduct will be approved by country’s top regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Thee authority will have “new powers to hold digital platforms to account and improve efforts to combat seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation”.
If a platform fails to set guidelines for misinformation, the regulatory body will establish them itself. Companies found violating these standards will be penalised accordingly. While the codes of conduct will be voluntary, they will have to be approved by the regulator.
The measures come under a new piece of legislation — the “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024”. It covers misleading information that could harm a person or a group, undermine election integrity, pose threats to public threats and critical emergency services.
“The Bill empowers the ACMA to oversee digital platforms with new information gathering, record keeping, code registration and standard making power,” the statement reads. “It will also introduce new obligations on digital platforms to increase their transparency with Australian users about how they handle misinformation and disinformation on their services.”
The development comes as Australia, which will go to polls within a year, ramps up regulatory measures against companies based outside of the country. The new measures, however, will not grant the ACMA any powers to take down flagged accounts or posts itself.
“Platforms are and will remain responsible for managing content on their services in line with their own terms of service,” according to the statement.
Extensive open consultations will be held “with with key stakeholders to refine and prepare the Bill for introduction”.
