Tech giants could face billions of dollars in fines for failing to tackle disinformation under proposed Australian laws, which a watchdog yesterday said would bring “mandatory” standards to the little-regulated sector.
Under the proposed legislation, the owners of platforms such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and podcasting services would face penalties worth up to 5 percent of annual global turnover — some of the highest proposed anywhere in the world.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), a government watchdog, would be granted powers to force companies to prevent misinformation or disinformation from spreading and stop it from being monetized.
Photo: AP
“The legislation, if passed, would provide the ACMA with a range of new powers to compel information from digital platforms, register and enforce mandatory industry codes as well as make industry standards,” an ACMA spokesperson said.
The watchdog would not have the power to take down or sanction individual posts, they said.
However, it could punish platforms for failing to monitor and combat intentionally “false, misleading and deceptive” content that could cause “serious harm.”
The rules would echo legislation expected to come into force in the EU, where tech giants could face fines as high as 6 percent of annual turnover and outright bans on operating inside the bloc.
Australia has been at the forefront of efforts to regulate digital platforms, prompting tech firms to make mostly unfulfilled threats to withdraw from the Australian market.
The proposed bill seeks to strengthen the voluntary Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation that was launched in 2021, but has had limited effect.
Tech giants including Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok and Twitter are signatories of the code.
The planned laws were unveiled on Sunday and come amid a surge of misinformation in Australia concerning a referendum this year on indigenous rights.
Australians are to be asked whether the constitution should recognize aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and if an indigenous consultative body should be created to weigh in on proposed legislation.
The Australian Electoral Commission said it had witnessed an increase in misinformation and abuse online about the referendum process.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS