Cross-party panel to hold its first meeting on Meta ‘misconduct’

The Albanese government’s parliamentary committee into the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society will hold its first meeting this week.

Federal Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones. Picture: Martin Ollman

The Albanese government’s parliamentary committee into the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society will hold its first meeting this week, as debate rages over a push to restrict children under 16 from accessing the tech giants’ platforms.

The Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society was established last month in the wake of Meta’s decision to abandon deals under the news media bargaining code, a move that could drain close to $100m from local news outlets.

The 12-member joint committee, chaired by federal Labor MP Kate Thwaites, will meet for the first time on Friday.

In addition to scrutinising Meta’s decision to walk away from the payment-for-content deals, and the use of age verification to protect Australian children from social media, the group will look at the important role of Australian journalism in countering misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms.

The algorithms and corporate decision making of digital platforms in influencing what Australians see, and the impacts of this on mental health, and other issues in relation to harmful or illegal content disseminated over social media, will also be canvassed.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, who has carriage of the news media bargaining code issue, is awaiting advice from his own department before he decides on whether to “designate” Meta under the terms of the legislation.

If Mr Jones finds that a significant bargaining power imbalance exists between Meta and Australian news media companies, and that the platform is not making a sufficient contribution to local news, the Assistant Treasurer could identify Meta as a designated platform, and force it to the bargaining table.

Should the Mark Zuckerberg-controlled company still refuse to negotiate, it could be slugged with fines of up to 10 per cent of the company’s Australian revenue.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP

On May 20, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission submitted its advice to Mr Jones on how to apply the bargaining code to Meta; Treasury is expected to make its submission in coming weeks.

Media companies including News Corp (publisher of The Australian), Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media have also made submissions to the government with regards to Meta, and the code.

Mr Jones told The Australian at the weekend: “We’re following the process laid out by the code to the letter of the law. I asked for the ACCC and Treasury to provide advice in relation to the application of the code to Meta.

“I am awaiting Treasury’s advice and will have more to say once I’ve considered both briefings.”

Last Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a total ban on under-16s from accessing social media was a “good way to go” in curbing the serious online harms affecting children, declaring that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was just playing “catch-up” by promising to legislate such a ban within the first 100 days of the Coalition taking office.

CyberCX chief strategy officer and former eSafety commissioner Alastair MacGibbon told The Australian tech giants made significant profit from allowing as large a cohort on to their platforms as possible, and that mandates stopping them from “monetising our kids” were needed.

“I applaud politicians for ­actually starting to talk about taking action on something that I think deep down most people in the public have wanted a stance on for a while,” he said.

However, Mr MacGibbon said the technology that would be needed to implement such a ban “still has a long way to go”.