Australia’s Prime Minister today criticized the owner of multinational company X for calling his government “fascist” after it announced a proposed law that would require social media networks to pay fines if they fail to control misinformation.
“Social media has a social responsibility. If Mr. Musk doesn’t understand that, that says more about him than it does about my government,” Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra, the capital, as quoted by his office.
The Australian government’s proposed law foresees that social networks and digital platforms could be fined up to 5% of their global revenue if they disseminate misleading and false information that causes serious harm.
According to the Australian government, the proposal seeks to combat the serious harm caused by the spread of misinformation about the safety, health and well-being of Australians, as well as the country’s democracy, society and economy.
With the law, the Canberra executive intends to give more powers to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to supervise and regulate.
Among other measures, ACMA may impose a code of conduct, although it cannot remove individual content.
The proposal is part of a series of initiatives that have been announced or presented to parliament against “doxing” (revealing a person’s information online without their consent), online fraud and the imposition of age limits on access to social networks.
Last April, Australian authorities forced X to remove a video of a violent attack, but the platform only took it down for Australia.
As a result, the Australian Electronic Safety Commission took Elon Musk’s social network to court, but ended up dropping the case in July, when another court ruled that an injunction against the aforementioned video outside Australia was “unenforceable”, due to the lack of Australian jurisdiction.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
