Australia should begin the long journey of regulating the big digital platforms. This need has clearer urgency with generative AI (GAI) where we need to act before the technology gets away from us again, but this time with larger consequences. I hear two arguments against such an approach, both of which are flawed.

First, some argue this is an issue for the United States, not Australia, and we should leave it to them. This ignores many things: US laws that protect the large digital platforms from responsibility for what they allow on their platforms; the US attachment to First Amendment rights which appear to protect speech no matter how false; and a partisan approach to politics in the US that makes agreement on solutions close to impossible.