Submission to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources regarding Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023

Digital Rights Watch (DRW) welcomes the opportunity to submit comments to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts regarding the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 (the Bill). We have significant concerns about the breadth of powers that the Bill proposes to grant the ACMA with limited mechanisms for oversight and accountability.

Mis- and dis-information are undoubtedly serious problems. Together, they are a symptom of advertising-based business models that prioritise engagement above all else. Platforms collect extensive personal information that underpins the strategic optimisation of features designed to attract new users, retain attention, and increase interaction with these platforms, allowing them to maximise value to advertisers. Platforms use micro-targeted advertising, automated search, active curation, and algorithmic recommendation systems to amplify the most engaging content. Revenue sharing systems, in turn, create direct financial incentives for content creators to create and share engaging content. The result is a media ecosystem that prioritises engaging content – often content that is polarising, controversial or addictive, including misinformation and disinformation. Consideration of collective concerns, such as the public interest, human rights and community obligations cannot compete with these motivations and in practice are not prioritised by platforms.

We welcome efforts to reduce the spread of mis- and disinformation, but these efforts only target the symptoms of the problem rather than the cause. This is not to say such efforts are in vain, but rather to acknowledge the complexity of the task as presented. It is also to ensure that the very real risks of overreach are addressed and not downplayed in pursuit of an over-simplified solution to the very real problems of mis- and dis-information.

A founding myth of the Internet is that it was a haven for free speech and facilitated the liberation of citizens from the authoritarian reach of the nation state. We accept that this was fantastical thinking; that in fact, algorithmic amplification of content for profit has been a feature of the Internet since its earliest days, as it was in the broadcast era. The curation of online content is nothing new. Having said that, a key priority of policymaking in this field should be to avoid contributing to digital authoritarianism. It is important to resist the temptation to over-police content at the expense of human rights like privacy, freedom of association as well as freedom of speech.

In this context, we wish to raise a number of comments and concerns about the exposure draft for your consideration.