Editorial: Google and Facebook must be regulated says ACCC

The legal and community scrutiny faced by traditional media organisations is not faced in anything like the same way by technology giants such as Google and Facebook. The ACCC recommended that these giants should face new laws to limit their unchallenged influence within our borders.

The legal and community scrutiny faced by traditional media organisations is not faced in anything like the same way by technology giants such as Google and Facebook.

Nor do such organisations face anything like the same tax obligations and expectations of commitment to their audience.

Unlike traditional media, which operates in a three-dimensional human world and must interact and engage with readers, advertisers, governments and business, tech giants live in a one-way arrangement.

Everything flows to them. Little is returned.

Facebook has been determined by the ACCC a significant media player.

These basic realities are emphasised in The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s landmark preliminary report into the operation of multinational digital companies in Australia.

The ACCC determined that social media giants Google and Facebook had become significant media players while stripping revenue from news providers, reducing scrutiny of public institutions and operating without regulation.

Understandably, the ACCC recommended that these giants should face new laws to limit their unchallenged influence within our borders. As ACCC chairman Rod Sims explains, massive digital platforms including Facebook and Google are now so powerful that there is little choice but to impose some regulation.

Not to do so would be to continue allowing a gigantic imbalance between businesses operating in Australia and meeting all local obligations and businesses based overseas yet able to plunder our markets without restriction.

“The alternative is we say, ‘there’s very large platforms, they have market power, they have a lot of data, they have a lot of influence, and we don’t care, we’ll leave it to them to make judgments’,” Sims said.

ACCC Chair Rod Sims big, powerful digital platforms must be regulated. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

Plainly, that is not an option. Particularly when the data harvesting committed by tech giants is taken into consideration.

“The data that’s collected from consumers using these platforms extends significantly beyond the data that users actively provide when using the digital platform services,” the ACCC chairman said.

“There seems to be an understatement to consumers of the extent of data collection.”

The ACCC has shone a very bright light on these businesses. Let the examination continue.

GAME BOY TURNS RAGE BOY

There is never any justification at all for domestic violence. Absolutely and completely none. Zero.

But an attack on a woman following a request to stop playing the online game Fortnite must rank as one of the lowest and most infantile acts of domestic violence ever committed.

Luke Munday allegedly slapping his girlfriend while he was streaming Fortnite.

Fellow gamers who alerted police to an apparent act of violence during a recent live-streamed Fortnite challenge deserve widespread commendation.

The alleged offender deserves the full force of the law. And the permanent removal of his Fortnite access.

LYON PASSES BRAVERY TEST

Obviously, batting and bowling are two completely different disciplines with completely different skill requirements.

This is why all-rounders — able to bat and bowl at a high level — are so prized by cricket teams. They effectively add an extra player.

But arguably more admirable are those bowlers whose batting doesn’t qualify them for all-rounder status, yet who still put great determination and effort into their work with the bat.

Nathan Lyon did his best to contribute to the run score despite not being a batter. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Spinner Nathan Lyon more than contributed with the ball during Adelaide’s First Test against India, taking eight match wickets, but his batting was an absolute highlight.

After scoring 24 undefeated runs in Australia’s first innings, Lyon took charge of the run chase on the fifth day, hitting 38 runs (again without being dismissed) to drag his team within range of victory.

Lyon wore a hit to the body with his very first ball yesterday yet remained resolute. His spirit, and the spirit of his humbled but never humiliated teammates, bodes well for the remainder of an engrossing Test series.