A washing machine has more safeguards than the web, and the Libs are in a full spin cycle

October 17, 2026 — 4:00am

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We know exactly the moment Pandora’s Box was opened. The US Congress legislated a special provision to give the tech companies an exemption from all responsibility. Until the passage of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, those companies had the same obligations as any other publisher. They were liable for everything they put on the internet.

But when they were magically reclassified as mere “platforms”, they had impunity. Why were they so favoured?

At the time, the tech companies portrayed themselves as cool innovators doing fun stuff. But, much as the gods fashioned Pandora “in the likeness of a modest maid”, in truth she was a snare. She opened the box of misery.

All the evils of the world were loosed upon us. Every harm that civilisation had fought to tame, contain or manage was now freed. Of course, the web has delivered a multitude of advantages.But the pernicious power of Section 230 was not evident until “social” media was popularised a decade later.

From that moment, every one of us has been forced to fend for ourselves against the extractive industry that feeds on our attention, our fears, our fetishes, our families and pays the dividends to their shareholders.

Trump’s Truth Social captured by Wells’ new digital safety laws

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek this week pointed out that your home washing machine has more safety protections than the internet. But your washing machine won’t encourage your kids to self-harm. “Social” media has fed most Australians self-harm and suicide-related content, according to a survey of about 3,500 of us conducted by the Patrick McGorry’s non-profit Orygen. That’s in spite of the fact that fewer than 1 in 5 people had actually searched for it. And kids were four times more likely to have been fed this poison than adults.

The Australian Psychological Society reports that the rate of hospitalisation for intentional self-harm has surged by 70 per cent in young women aged 15 to 19 between 2008 and 2021, the heyday of “social” media uptake.

At the macro level, “social” media has fomented anger, fired up racial and sexual hatreds, divided societies, skewed elections around the world.

Nor will your washing machine covertly........

© Brisbane Times