Australia Cancels Planned Fines For Social Media Spreading Misinformation

Australian Minister of Communications, Michelle Rowland (photo: x @MRowlandMP)

The Australian government has officially canceled a bill that allows fines of up to 5% of global internet platform revenue that has failed to prevent the spread of misinformation online.

This move was previously part of a broad regulatory effort aimed at tightening control of foreign technology platforms, which are often considered to ignore the country's sovereignty. This cancellation comes ahead of the federal general election which will take place in less than a year.

"We conclude that there is no way to pass this proposal through the Senate," said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement.

Rowland said the bill would provide an unprecedented level of transparency, while at the same time holding major technology companies accountable for their systems and processes in preventing the spread of misinformation and malicious disinformation.

However, this design was rejected by the opposition Liberal-Nasional coalition, the Australian Greens, and a number of independent senators. Green Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young even called the government's proposal a "half- mature option" in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Sunday, November 24.

A survey shows that about four-fifths of Australians want the spread of misinformation to be addressed. However, the government led by the far-left Labor Party has fallen behind in the survey over conservative opposition coalitions.

The technology industry agency, DIGI, one of its members, Meta, previously stated that the regime proposed by the government only strengthened existing anti-misinformation codes.