Australian Parliament To Hold Investigations On Negative Impacts Of Social Media Platforms

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (photo: x @AlboMP)

JAKARTA - The Australian government announced on Friday 9 May that it will hold a parliamentary investigation to examine the negative impacts of social media platforms. They said the platforms had significant reach and control over what Australians saw online, and had almost no adequate oversight.

The Australian government has criticized social media platforms for being slow in removing violent shipments and demanding more scrutiny over content posted on Meta's Facebook, Elon Musk's TikTok, and X.

"In a number of issues, be it problems of domestic violence, as well as the radicalization of our young people, in various areas, something that continues to appear repeatedly is the role of social media," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.

"In principle, (they) can be very positive but can also have a negative influence there," he added.

The government of the Albanese-led Labor Party has been involved in legal battles with Elon Musk over a regulatory order asking the platform to remove a video of the stabbing attack on the bishop of the Ashur Church in Sydney last month.

X said it had blocked the shipments for Australian users, but the e-Australia Security Commissioner said its content should have been removed for all users around the world for showing explicit violence. Musk has posted a meme criticizing Albanese, describing the government's decision as censorship.

The joint parliamentary selection committee will also examine Meta's decision to withdraw from news payments in Australia. Meta declined to comment on the investigation.

Australia's Minister of Communications, Michelle Rowland, said that Parliament needs to understand how social media companies "downgrade content that supports healthy democracy, as well as anti-social content that damages public safety."

"This investigation will provide opportunities and resources for lawmakers to closely examine these companies and provide recommendations on how we can make these platforms responsible for their decisions," Rowland said.

The Australian government said it was still determining the terms and scope of this investigation and did not specify who would be asked to testify. Several Australian parliamentary investigations have the power to summon individual-individuals to be examined in meetings.