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According to ABC, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) should keep playing a key role in encouraging digital platforms’ compliance with the Misinformation Code.
The public service broadcaster made the assertion in a comment to the most recent version of Australia’s disinformation and misinformation code, which was created by the nonprofit organisation Digital Industry Group (DIGI). Published last month was a reaction to submissions.
Eight companies have signed on to the disinformation and misinformation code thus far: Apple, Adobe, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Redbubble, TikTok, and Twitter.
The study follows ACMA’s recommendation to look into the possibility of expanding the regulatory purview of the code, and ABC suggested that the media regulator should keep up its role in “identifying those services that are strong candidates.”
This involves making recommendations for digital entities’ participation standards (such as 500,000 active users each month) and creating new “qualitative factors that could guide participation”.
In agreement with the sentiment, DIGI said that it welcomed ACMA to take on the role outlined by the ABC in the discussion paper.
Meanwhile, the ACMA intends to strengthen its jurisdiction over the code in order to increase openness.
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It suggested receiving “formal information-gathering powers” in a June 2021 report evaluating the misinformation code, which would enable it to ask for data specific to Australia on the efficacy of countermeasures to disinformation and misinformation.
Small platforms with less than one million active monthly users must now submit a transparency report to DIGI, which must be updated as needed on an annual basis. This is one of the new requirements of the revised code.
WhatsApp and other private messaging apps are, however, still not included in the conversation about false information.
Additionally, there have been requests for the code to switch from the existing “opt-in” strategy, in which businesses are obligated to follow all regulations unless they are deemed unnecessary, to a “opt-out” strategy.
“We’ve closely examined feedback and made updates that strengthen the code in a range of areas, including improving the threshold of what is considered harmful mis- and disinformation, and the code commitments on digital advertising,” DIGI’s managing director Sunita Bose said of the review in December.
“As mainstream platforms get better in their approaches to mis- and disinformation, it’s likely to proliferate elsewhere online. That’s why we’re also making changes today to make it easier for smaller companies to adopt the code,” Bose added.
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
