Following a lengthy Senate inquiry, the Greens have today announced their opposition to the Government’s mis and disinformation bill and have called for the bill to be withdrawn. The Greens have heard evidence from experts, lawyers and the community that the Government’s approach doesn’t get to the heart of tackling the harms of mis and disinformation. There are serious concerns that handing responsibility over to tech platforms to self-regulate what is true or false will likely have unintended consequences that undermine the policy intent.
Greens’ opposition means the bill cannot pass the Senate. The Government has failed to address the significant concerns that have been raised by many in the community, and the Greens are today calling on the Government to withdraw the bill.
Greens spokesperson for communications and Senator for South Australia, Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“The Greens understand that mis and disinformation is a growing danger to democracy, public discourse, health and safety both in Australia and around the world and needs to be tackled.
“However we are concerned this bill doesn’t actually do what it needs to do when it comes to stopping the deliberate mass distribution of false and harmful information.
“It gives media moguls like Murdoch an exemption and hands over responsibility to tech companies and billionaires like Elon Musk to determine what is true or false under ambiguous definitions. It does little to stop non-human actors like bots flooding social media and boosting dangerous algorithms.
“There has been strong community opposition to this bill, and experts have also raised serious concerns. The Government has failed to address these.
“As such, the Greens will be opposing the bill. The Government should listen to community concern and withdraw this legislation.
“Instead, the Government needs to focus on comprehensive reforms that tackle the business models and dangerous algorithms that fuel division and damage democracy, and legislate a duty of care so these platforms prevent harm in the first place.”