Social media giants will face the wrath of Australian government with new committee

Australia continues to harden its stance on social media. In a release from the office of Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland, the government has announced the establishment of a Joint Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society.

The committee forms in the wake of Meta’s refusal to sign a new agreement that would see it pay for hosting news. Rowland argues that social media companies “have enormous reach and control over what Australians see with little to no scrutiny,” and that “they need to be more accountable and transparent.”

“Parliament needs to understand how social media companies dial up and down the content that supports healthy democracies, as well as the anti-social content that undermines public safety,” she says.

In Canada, a similar political scrimmage with Meta around federal Bill C-18 has left new outlets on every level without access to Facebook and Instagram. Some observers argue that the void left by mainstream news has been filled by misinformation. (A report from the Guardian quotes a statement from Meta, saying it had “never thought about news as a way to minimize misinformation or disinformation on our services.”)

Yet while the dry spell of news on social media has been going on in Canada since August 2023, Australia seems more actively intent on addressing Meta’s refusal to pay for news. Rowland says social media has a civic responsibility to its users. “Unilateral decisions to undermine news hurt us all. Establishing this inquiry will provide opportunity and resources for parliamentarians to closely scrutinize these companies and make recommendations on how we can make these platforms more accountable for their decisions”.

Social media firms use age verification as a red herring argument

In its first hearing – available in full on video here – the committee heard from ​​civil and digital rights groups, who advocated for urgent action on strong regulator-led privacy, competition and online safety reforms. In a report from InnovationAus, Rys Farthing, director of research and policy organization Reset Australia, says social media firms have begun to leverage debates over age verification technology as a convenient “narrative of complexity” that helps slow the regulatory grind.

“It’s their playbook to start talking about age verification the moment we talk about any particular safety enhancements or safety standards that could be implemented for kids,” says Farthing. “There are multiple regulatory reforms that we’ve put in place that would fundamentally transform the digital architecture for young people without requiring age assurance. But it’s the only thing that tech wants to talk about.”

Lizzie O’Shea, chair of Digital Rights Watch, claims (without reference to statistics) that age assurance has technical limitations, and comes with ethical questions. “I’m not sure it’s entirely clear that age verification can deliver on the promise that’s been made,” she says, “let alone not be a harmful intervention for many young people who use online spaces to find friends or solace, express themselves, all sorts of things.”

The Joint Parliamentary Select Committee will continue to examine and report on Meta’s role in news distribution, how journalism helps counter misinformation and disinformation, the impacts of algorithms and recommender systems on mental health, and the risks presented by scams and illegal content.

Meanwhile, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones sums up, Schwarzenegger-style, the committee’s overarching message to social media platforms: “Be better. Do better.”