‘Governments around the world are grappling with this challenge’: Albo to take on tech giants this election
As electioneering season swings around again, Anthony Albanese’s government is taking on the world’s most powerful tech companies with a series of proposed laws aimed at controlling their reach in Australia.
Labor has promised to draft laws before Christmas that enforce an age restriction on social media platforms – with Albanese publicly stating on Tuesday he believed the age limit should be 16, but will consult with the state leaders before committing to an age.
“One of the things that we wanted to do is to make sure… that we don’t end up having eight different systems,” he said on Nova Sydney.
“So, the right age is between 14 and 16. I have a personal view. I err on the side of a higher limit.”
When asked if ’16’ was his preference, Albanese confirmed: “That’s where I’m at. But I want to make sure that we don’t end up with different systems in different states. We want a national approach to an issue, which is a national issue.
“So, that’s one of the reasons why we’ve got out there and made this announcement, perhaps earlier than we would have. We were going to wait for the trial and then make an announcement.
“But we wanted to make it clear of where we were headed, that we will have legislation by the end of the year. And one of the things that the age verification trial will do is to look at, through real experience, and we’ve done a lot of work, like it’s at the final stage now of then going out and undertaking this trial.
“But some pre-work has been done to make sure that we get it right here. Look, it’s not simple, that’s the truth, and we all know that, because governments around the world are grappling with this challenge. But if you don’t try, you won’t succeed. And we want to make sure that we get it right.”
Meanwhile, assistant treasurer Stephen Jones told the Herald the Government was looking at a series of policy measures, rather than a sweeping package.
These include legislating payment apps by Apple and Google in the same manner as credit companies; giving more powers to the eSafety Commissioner to enforce harsher duty of care penalties to social media companies under the Online Safety Act; and imposing a levy on tech companies that use local news content, rather than forcing Meta and Google to compensate news outlets for using their content by formally designating them under the News Bargaining Code.
Meta shut down Facebook News in Australia in April, and discontinued its payment deals with local news outlets, while Google only agreed to a one-year funding extension.
Nine, News Corp, and Seven have all pointed to the loss of Meta’s funding as the reason for the recent redundancies that have rocked the industry – with these commercial deals worth $70 million to the news organisations.
“The proposition is simple – if you’re a bricks-and-mortar company or a digital platform, and you’re operating in Australia, you’ve got to abide by Australian laws,” Jones said of the proposed policy measures.
“The big digital platforms are making billions of dollars in Australia, so we’re a valuable marketplace for these platforms, and we are determined to assert our sovereignty.”
Pointing out that “regulating criminal content is not a matter of free speech,” Jones asked, “how do we hold social media companies to account for harm when they operate as if they are not accountable.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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