MEMBER for Mallee Anne Webster has upped the stakes in her campaign against misinformation on social media this week, calling on the government to develop laws holding the big technology companies to account.
Dr Webster moved in Federal Parliament on Monday for social media companies to be considered publishers of the content hosted on their sites, which would give them a legal responsibility to remove defamatory content or incitements to violence posted by users.
“Big tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google have amassed extraordinary power in the global corporate and political landscape,” she said in a speech to the parliament.
The storming of the Capitol in the United States on January 6 was a “watershed” moment in the “question of regulation of big tech companies”, she said.
The insurrection was organised by far-Right groups after years of warnings about violence planned and advocated openly through groups on mainstream platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and on Reddit, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Dr Webster’s call for new laws was also motivated by personal experience of being targeted on social media, she said.
“For several months in 2020, my husband and I, as well as the charity we founded to help single mothers access education, were the targets of baseless and defamatory accusations made by a conspiracy theorist on Facebook,” she said. “It was unrelenting for months.”
“Despite originating in New Zealand, the accusations were widely distributed and even reached local networks in my electorate of Mallee.
“My husband and I were concerned for our safety, and we even installed security cameras at our home, for our peace of mind,” she said. “It was an incredibly distressing time for my family.”
Online conspiracy theorist Karen Brewer was ordered to pay Dr Webster, her husband, and their not-for-profit organisation a total of $875,000 in damages in September for the false information spread about them.
“If big tech companies want to preserve their power to moderate and promote content on their sites, they need to be treated under the same legislative framework as traditional news media and held to account for the consequences of hosting damaging content,” Dr Webster said.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is in the process of overseeing the development of a voluntary code of conduct for social media companies.
“Holding big tech companies to account as publishers would provide an incentive for these companies to follow the code of conduct,” Dr Webster said.
Dr Webster’s motion was seconded by Julian Simmonds, a Queensland Liberal National Party member. Parliamentary debate continues this week.
