Greens Senator David Shoebridge has claimed that Labor’s Digital Duty of Care is needed to quell the spread of conservative messaging on social media.
Before Question Time on Thursday, Senator Shoebridge told News24.com.au there has been a lot of discussion about the “whack-a-mole approach” of Labor’s sweeping internet regime.
Asked about the harmful content which the Digital Duty of Care intended to prevent, Mr Shoebridge singled out Pauline Hanson for promoting “hateful messages”.
“It’s about good system design. It’s about having an algorithm that doesn’t actually promote and generate hate,” he told News24 Senior Political Reporter Trudy McIntosh.
“And every time you get Pauline Hanson come out and say, well, actually, she wants to promote hateful messages against First Nations peoples. Or you get or you get the Coalition coming out and saying that they want to promote genocide denial.
“I think it points out we need Digital Duty of Care so that those messages aren’t amplified and they don’t become the content that kids are digesting when they flip open their phone and wonder what’s happening in the world.”
Last week, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the laws would hand unacceptable power to the government.
“This bill is unacceptable in its current form because the reality is it’s providing a blank cheque for political censorship to the Minister, to the government,” Mr Taylor said.
“Of course the resolve of the party room is that we do need to protect kids. We do need to hold big tech to account.”
However, Mr Taylor said ends did not justify the means.
“This is a government that cannot be trusted. This is a minister who cannot be trusted. She herself has said that she is not trusted by the Australian people,” he said.
The Coalition’s position means Labor will need to look elsewhere in the Senate to pass the reforms.
On Thursday, Mr Shoebridge signalled the Greens would be open to backing the bill after Communication Minister Anika Wells acknowledged the Digital Duty of Care would extend beyond social media companies.
“The Digital Duty of Care does go to all online services. And that’s an attempt to try and capture things like… games, AI chatbots,” Ms Wells told News24.com.au last week.
On Sunday, the Albanese government made the stunning declaration that the Digital Duty of Care laws would “lead the way” in regulating information online.
Special Minister of State Don Farrell told News24.com.au that “everybody recognises that we have to regulate social media and the internet”.
“I think what Anika Wells has been doing in this space has been fantastic. We’re leading the way in terms of regulation of this sort of information.
“We’re not seeking to deprive people of free speech, there’ll be plenty of that. But there has to be regulation and there has to be controls.”