Together with internet authorities from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Fiji, Australia’s eSafety Commission will develop new regulations to tackle abuse, harmful information and unlawful material on social media.
The Global Online Safety Regulators Network will work together on an “international approach to online safety regulation,” representatives from the four nations said at a meeting in Washington, DC.
The announcement follows significant budget cuts to Twitter and Facebook’s online safety and moderation teams last month.
Australia had also previously adopted a groundbreaking adult cyber abuse scheme and Online Safety Act in January.
Early on, social media experts praised the partnership, saying it needed “all the firepower” it could muster to combat online harassment and trolls.
The group will consist of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Australia’s eSafety Commission, the UK’s Ofcom and the Online Safety Commission of Fiji.
Working together would enable the organisations to share knowledge and create uniform legislation, preventing a “splinternet” of regulations for social networks and their users across international borders, according to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
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Grant said, “I’ve always believed the future of effective online safety regulation would involve a network of global regulators working together to make the online world a safer place for everyone.”
“Today’s announcement is the first step in making that future a reality,” she added.
Since 2018, each of the involved regulatory bodies has passed laws addressing abuse, cyberbullying, and trolling. These laws include Australia’s Online Safety Act, which was passed in January, and the UK’s Online Safety Bill, which instructed social networks to remove illegal and potentially harmful content.
The safety of “everyone from Melbourne to Manchester” will be assured throguh sharing experiences and research across countries, according to Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom.
Dawes said, “Global companies don’t consider borders as barriers to their business models and neither should we when it comes to regulating them.”
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Belinda Barnet, a senior lecturer in social media at Swinburne University, applauded the partnership and said it would “inspire new ideas” for combating harmful information on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms.
Barnet said, “We need all the firepower we can get. Australia has been very good at implementing policies that are innovative in digital media and will have a lot to share with other countries.”
Barnet, however, noted that given how far behind the rest of the world Australia’s laws frequently lagged, it may also benefit from advice on “data privacy and protection” for social media users.
The news regarding online safety also comes in the wake of worries over widespread layoffs at Twitter and Facebook, which have affected staff employees in charge of policing offensive content.
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
