Online platforms spreading misinformation and disinformation could face millions of dollars in penalties under new proposed federal government legislation that bolsters the power of Australia's media watchdog.
The Department of Communication, or anyone else will make a complaint to ACMA, and they will then make a ruling on it and pass it to the Dept of Communication.
Regardless of the ruling, the minister for Communication will then issue fines if he/she considers that it is “misinformation”.
The recipient can ask for a court ruling, but the court can only rule on whether the minister has complied with the law, not whether it is misinformation.
BTW, the ABC has started with a lie ; the law will apply not only to social media, but also search engines, websites and BBSes.
The ACMA would also be able to request the industry to develop a “code of practice” covering measures to combat misinformation.
Violating the code could result in penalties up to $2.75 million dollars or 2 per cent of global turnover — whichever is greater.
And lastly, the ACMA would be empowered to create and enforce its own industry standard.
Penalties for breaching the standards could see companies paying up to $6.8 million or 5 per cent of their global turnover.
This is actually pretty reasonable (with regard to the corporate players). All it says is the industry has to develop a code of best practice and try to follow it, and keep records of what they’re doing to follow the industry code when ACMA come asking. ACMA may make a standard if the industry fail to create a code, or if the code is insufficient.
ACMA wont be dealing in individual cases here. They’re trying to put the onus on the industry to do all the work. Apart from possibly annual reporting, ACMA are only going to take action if somewhere becomes a cesspool of misinformation.
What is worrying is that this will apply to Lemmy too. @lodion Thoughts? We’ll probably fly under the radar as we’re (currently) fairly inconsequential. But will this still be worth it to you if you have to keep to a code of practice, records, etc that he big players get to write.
It will work like this :
The Department of Communication, or anyone else will make a complaint to ACMA, and they will then make a ruling on it and pass it to the Dept of Communication.
Regardless of the ruling, the minister for Communication will then issue fines if he/she considers that it is “misinformation”.
The recipient can ask for a court ruling, but the court can only rule on whether the minister has complied with the law, not whether it is misinformation.
BTW, the ABC has started with a lie ; the law will apply not only to social media, but also search engines, websites and BBSes.
@[email protected] , @[email protected]
Read the actual draft bill here
This is actually pretty reasonable (with regard to the corporate players). All it says is the industry has to develop a code of best practice and try to follow it, and keep records of what they’re doing to follow the industry code when ACMA come asking. ACMA may make a standard if the industry fail to create a code, or if the code is insufficient.
ACMA wont be dealing in individual cases here. They’re trying to put the onus on the industry to do all the work. Apart from possibly annual reporting, ACMA are only going to take action if somewhere becomes a cesspool of misinformation.
What is worrying is that this will apply to Lemmy too. @lodion Thoughts? We’ll probably fly under the radar as we’re (currently) fairly inconsequential. But will this still be worth it to you if you have to keep to a code of practice, records, etc that he big players get to write.