The Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society has tabled its final report.
The committee, chaired by Federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon MP, has examined the decision of Meta to abandon deals under the News Media Bargaining Code, the important role of Australian news and public interest journalism in countering mis- and disinformation on digital platforms, the algorithms, recommender systems and corporate decision making of digital platforms, and the influence and impact of social media on Australian society at large.
Over the course of the inquiry, the committee heard a range of perspectives from stakeholders including social media platforms, media organisations, youth organisations, parents with lived experience of the harms of social media, academics and other experts.
This is the third and final report of the Committee and focuses on the impacts of social media and Australian society. It examines the influence of social media on users’ health and wellbeing, particularly on vulnerable cohorts of people, but also how social media can provide users with a positive connection, a sense of community, a place for expression, and instant access to information and entertainment.
The final report has made twelve considered recommendations, which aim to address concerns raised during the course of the inquiry, including:
- greater enforceability of laws to bring digital platforms under Australian jurisdiction
- support for a single and overarching statutory duty of care for digital platforms to ensure Australian users, particularly children, are safe online
- effective, mandatory data access for independent researchers and public interest organisations, coupled with a rigorous auditing process by appropriate regulators
- measures to enable users greater control over the content they see by having the ability to alter, reset, or turn off their personal algorithms and recommender systems
- greater protections for users’ personal information
- inclusion of young Australians in the co-design processes for the regulation of social media
- research and data collection provisions to enable evidence-based policy development
- ongoing education to improve digital competency and online safety skills
- built in safety-by-design principles for current and future platform technology
- a transparent complaints mechanism that incorporates a right of appeal process, and
- adequate resourcing for the Office of the eSafety Commissioner to discharge its evolving functions.
Quotes attributable to Committee Chair Sharon Claydon:
“The Committee strongly supports the twelve recommendations in this report, and the eleven of the second interim report.
“Each recommendation addresses the complexity of the problem, recognises the value of both social media and public interest journalism in Australia, and is aimed squarely at keeping Australians safe online.
“With this report, big tech is now on notice. Digital platforms are not immune from the need to have a social licence to operate.
“This report comes at a time when the government is already taking strong action to hold big tech to account through protections for young people by limiting their access to social media, and broader reforms to move online safety to a duty of care model announced by the government last week."
