The government has dumped its misinformation bill to regulate speech on social media. The bill was widely criticised by legal experts, media companies and the government's political opponents.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The bill to tackle misinformation and disinformation on social media has been dumped after the
00:06Federal Government failed to get the Greens on board.
00:10Under the proposed legislation, the media watchdog would pressure big tech companies
00:14to crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
00:19The Coalition has been strongly against this legislation, arguing that it could be used
00:23to censor arguments and it used The Voice as an example of that.
00:27Throughout this process, we've also heard from constitutional law experts who have said
00:32that there were dangers in allowing social media platforms to define what is misinformation
00:37or what is disinformation.
00:39The Greens have said they'd vote this bill down in the Senate, which means there's now
00:43no path forward for the legislation given the Coalition is against it.
00:47And earlier on Insiders, we heard Greens spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young outlining why they won't
00:52support the bill.
00:53It was badly and poorly explained and implemented.
00:57The practical implementation was just not there.
01:00And that's true.
01:01Mis- and disinformation is a problem right around the world.
01:04It's not just in Australia.
01:05We've seen it unfolding in the US during this election.
01:08But unless you deal with it properly, rather than this kind of half-baked option, which
01:13is what the government had put on the table, trying to be all things to all people.
01:17We understand the Federal Government is not going to introduce its gambling legislation
01:22this week, which is the final parliamentary sitting week of the year.
01:27Under the proposal or the model that Labor had landed on, there were plans to restrict
01:31gambling advertising up until 10pm and ban it totally on children's programs.
01:36But that fell short of a total gambling ad ban that some Labor MPs had been agitating
01:42for.
01:43Now, the government says that it still intends to introduce the legislation this term of
01:47government.
01:48But given that parliament is finishing up this week and might not return next year if
01:52an election is called, what it means is that the future of this legislation is in doubt.