Five lessons from Aust’s battle with tech giants |
Big technology companies, including Facebook, Google and Elon Musk’s X, have proven difficult for national governments to control.
The Internet has been treated as a “Wild West” beyond government authority.
This is changing. In the past five years, Australia has been at the pointy end of tech regulation, and the world is watching.
The Morrison Coalition government legislated the news media bargaining code in 2021, requiring large, profitable tech companies to fund Australian journalism.
Commercial arrangements with Google and Facebook provided hundreds of millions of dollars to employ hundreds of journalists. The code inspired reform efforts in Canada and New Zealand.
The Coalition also established the world’s first government organisation dedicated to keeping people safe online: The eSafety Commission. eSafety enforces the takedown of extremist and abusive material and facilitates and enforces industry self-regulation. It coordinates with other countries on global online safety.
The Albanese Labor government’s social media ban for under 16-year-olds began late late year.
There are serious concerns about the ban’s consequences for isolated young people, but its popularity cannot be denied – it has already inspired efforts in Malaysia, Europe, Papua New........