The Albanese Government is set to back down on ministerial powers in its digital duty of care bill in a bid to revive the bill’s prospects of passing the Senate after opposition from the Coalition and the Greens. Source: The Australian.
An earlier version of the law would have given the communications minister the power to determine what constitutes “serious harm” for the purposes of the law. But after revolt from the Coalition and the Greens, Labor now appears set to water down the bill and instead give that power to parliament so that the bill can pass the Senate.
The government says a digital duty of care would put an “onus on digital service providers to provide a safe online environment”, including offering users an option to opt out of an algorithmically ranked social media feed.
It is understood Labor would prefer to pass the legislation with Coalition support instead of the Greens. The Greens are demanding far more onerous restrictions and requirements on tech platforms.
But Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said Labor must now entirely scrap its proposed digital duty of care and “go back to the drawing board”.
“This is a blank cheque for political censorship by a government desperate to shut down its political opponents,” she said. “Even if the minister’s unfettered powers to prohibit any category of online harm are removed, we have no confidence the bill’s many flaws will be remedied.”
Chief among these, Senator Henderson said, was her claim the digital duty of care would displace existing mandatory codes and standards that imposed obligations on platforms to detect and remove “seriously harmful and unlawful material such as child sexual exploitation and terrorism material”.
The government’s exposure draft further “fails to exempt news media which is a serious assault on free speech”, Senator Henderson said.
“It also gives the eSafety Commissioner untenable powers to create fake ’sock puppet’ accounts to track people anonymously online.”
A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Anika Wells told ABC News the government was “finalising” the bill based on feedback from 225 submissions, 22 roundtable briefings and 60 one-on-one meetings about the proposal.
“The overwhelming message we heard was that Australians want a Digital Duty of Care to protect young people and hold big tech to basic standards, just like every other industry,” she said.
FULL STORY
Labor on verge of backing down on digital duty of care ministerial powers (By Noah Yim, The Australian)
Greens demand right to sue big tech as Labor prepares online safety laws and trust tax changes (By Clare Armstrong, ABC News)
