Submission on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023
In a submission to the Federal government Department, the Human Rights Law Centre recommended that in place of the proposal for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to be a “backstop” option for regulation, ACMA should instead be given sufficient powers to regulate social media platforms effective immediately.
Co-regulation models are highly unlikely to work given the consistent failures of social media networks like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) to live up to public expectations in addressing harmful speech online. It also made recommendations to strengthen the Bill, including:
ensuring that experts and civil society organisations were able to access digital platforms’ data on how they amplify the spread of disinformation, to ensure greater accountability; and
requiring misinformation standards created by the industry and ACMA to be consistent with human rights.