Australia Proposes Strict Regulations on Tech Giants, Sparking Controversy

Australia's government spent the week boxing Big Tech

With social media age limits, anti-scam laws, privacy tweaks, and misinformation rules Elon Musk labelled 'fascist' Australia's government has spent the week reining in Big Tech. The fun started on Monday when prime minister Anthony Albanese announced his intention to introduce a minimum age for social media, with a preference for the services to be off limits until kids turn 16. "I want kids to have a childhood," the PM urged. "I want them off their devices ... I want them to have real experiences with real people." Albanese promised legislation to enact the rule will be tabled before Australia's next election, due by 2025. Opposition leader Peter Dutton broadly supported the proposal, which is pitched at parents who are tired of having to protect their kids online. On Wednesday, Meta fronted a parliamentary Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence and admitted it has used Australians' posts to train its AI models - and has done as far back as 2007 - unless they were denoted as private, or posted by users under 18 years of age. When pressed on whether that meant pictures of minors posted by an adult, Facebook execs reportedly first said it wouldn't happen, then corrected their position and admitted images of minors could be ingested. That admission didn't go down well. Even so, the fact that scraping Australians' content was made possible by privacy laws that are less strong than those in the EU meant Meta was able to emerge without looking entirely villainous. Later the same day, Zuckerberg's minions struggled to escape that status once again. Other ministers foreshadowed a response to Meta's decision to stop paying local publishers under Australia's News Media Bargaining Code - the scheme that sees certain social media and search operators pay for the right to link to locally produced content. Meta claims it has all but stopped linking to such content, and the government thinks that was done largely to evade payments - and is threatening to use powers that would compel The Social Network to come to the bargaining table. It's widely expected that Meta will ignore that process, so ministers have floated the idea of a special levy on Big Tech - and perhaps also a new scheme that would require them to pay the sources of content they use to train their AIs. On Thursday Australians learned of a privacy law update for the digital age aimed at protecting citizens whose data is exposed by breaches. The law will also make doxxing a crime. Next came amendments to hate crime laws that strengthen existing criminal offences which prohibit a person urging another person to use force or violence against a group or member of a group. That change will cover online conduct. Also on Thursday, Australia introduced laws that will require digital platforms to explain how they handle misinformation and disinformation on their services. If tech providers don't agree to a voluntary code, the government will create one for them - and make it enforceable. The definitions of misinformation and disinformation in the Bill are narrow and the law will only apply when content is felt to have potential to seriously harm the Australian community or infrastructure. Elon Musk nonetheless labelled Australia's government "Fascists." Which wasn't helpful: politicians of all stripes criticized him fiercely on Friday. On the same day, the government announced an anti-scam plan that singles out digital platforms as "a point of vulnerability in the scams ecosystem" and criticizes them for taking "limited action to protect Australian consumers from scams." Penalties of up to AUD$50 million ($33.5 million) have been suggested as appropriate for breaches of planned requirements to detect and block scams. That's a lot of tech-related law in a single week. Plenty of it has a chance of passing in coming months - but the dispute with Meta and others over paying for content has the potential to get ugly. ® a

Elon Musk blasts Australia as 'fascists' over social media disinformation law

Elon Musk has lambasted Australia's government as "fascists" over proposed laws that could levy substantial fines on social media companies if they fail to comply with rules to combat the spread of disinformation and online scams. The billionaire owner of social media site X posted the word "fascists" on Friday in response to the bill, which would strengthen the Australian media regulator's ability to hold companies responsible for the content on their platforms and levy potential fines of up to 5 per cent of global revenue. The bill, which was proposed this week, has yet to be passed. Musk's comments drew rebukes from senior Australian politicians, with Stephen Jones, Australia's finance minister, telling national broadcaster ABC that it was "crackpot stuff" and the legislation was a matter of sovereignty. Bill Shorten, the former leader of the Labor party and a cabinet minister, accused the billionaire of only championing free speech when it was in his commercial interests. "Elon Musk's had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra," Shorten said in an interview with Australian radio. The exchange marks the second time that Musk has confronted Australia over technology regulation. In May, he accused the country's eSafety Commissioner of censorship after the government agency took X to court in an effort to force it to remove graphic videos of a stabbing attack in Sydney. A court later denied the eSafety Commissioner's application. Musk has also been embroiled in a bitter dispute with authorities in Brazil, where the Supreme Court ruled last month that X should be blocked over its failure to remove or suspend certain accounts accused of spreading misinformation and hateful content. Australia has been at the forefront of efforts to regulate the technology sector, pitting it against some of the world's largest social media companies. This week, the government pledged to introduce a minimum age limit for social media use to tackle "screen addiction" among young people. In March, Canberra threatened to take action against Meta after the owner of Facebook and Instagram said it would withdraw from a world-first deal to pay media companies to link to news stories. The government also introduced new data privacy measures to parliament on Thursday that would impose hefty fines and potential jail terms of up to seven years for people found guilty of "doxxing" individuals or groups. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government had pledged to outlaw doxxing -- the publication of personal details online for malicious purposes -- this year after the details of a private WhatsApp group containing hundreds of Jewish Australians were published online. Australia is one of the first countries to pursue laws outlawing doxxing. It is also expected to introduce a tranche of laws in the coming months to regulate how personal data can be used by artificial intelligence. "These reforms give more teeth to the regulation," said Monique Azzopardi at law firm Clayton Utz.

"Fascists": Elon Musk responds to proposed fines for disinformation on X

"Elon Musk's had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra," says lawmaker. Elon Musk has lambasted Australia's government as "fascists" over proposed laws that could levy substantial fines on social media companies if they fail to comply with rules to combat the spread of disinformation and online scams. The billionaire owner of social media site X posted the word "fascists" on Friday in response to the bill, which would strengthen the Australian media regulator's ability to hold companies responsible for the content on their platforms and levy potential fines of up to 5 percent of global revenue. The bill, which was proposed this week, has yet to be passed. Musk's comments drew rebukes from senior Australian politicians, with Stephen Jones, Australia's finance minister, telling national broadcaster ABC that it was "crackpot stuff" and the legislation was a matter of sovereignty. Bill Shorten, the former leader of the Labor party and a cabinet minister, accused the billionaire of only championing free speech when it was in his commercial interests. "Elon Musk's had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra," Shorten said in an interview with Australian radio. The exchange marks the second time that Musk has confronted Australia over technology regulation. In May, he accused the country's eSafety Commissioner of censorship after the government agency took X to court in an effort to force it to remove graphic videos of a stabbing attack in Sydney. A court later denied the eSafety Commissioner's application. Musk has also been embroiled in a bitter dispute with authorities in Brazil, where the Supreme Court ruled last month that X should be blocked over its failure to remove or suspend certain accounts accused of spreading misinformation and hateful content. Australia has been at the forefront of efforts to regulate the technology sector, pitting it against some of the world's largest social media companies. This week, the government pledged to introduce a minimum age limit for social media use to tackle "screen addiction" among young people. In March, Canberra threatened to take action against Meta after the owner of Facebook and Instagram said it would withdraw from a world-first deal to pay media companies to link to news stories. The government also introduced new data privacy measures to parliament on Thursday that would impose hefty fines and potential jail terms of up to seven years for people found guilty of "doxxing" individuals or groups. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government had pledged to outlaw doxxing -- the publication of personal details online for malicious purposes -- this year after the details of a private WhatsApp group containing hundreds of Jewish Australians were published online. Australia is one of the first countries to pursue laws outlawing doxxing. It is also expected to introduce a tranche of laws in the coming months to regulate how personal data can be used by artificial intelligence. "These reforms give more teeth to the regulation," said Monique Azzopardi at law firm Clayton Utz. © 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.