SYDNEY, Nov 10 - Australia’s internet safety regulator on Tuesday pushed back against warnings from major technology companies that a proposed online safety law would drive platforms to over-censor content out of fear of liability.
The government’s Digital Duty of Care proposal would obligate internet companies to take proactive steps to identify and prevent potential harms by users, with non-compliance exposing firms to fines of up to A$109 million ($75 million). Advocates for broader regulation argue a comprehensive legal framework is needed to build an effective safety regime; critics and free speech campaigners say the measure gives regulators too much latitude in defining harmful content.
While the bill has cleared the House of Representatives, it still requires support from crossbench senators to pass the Senate and become law.
On industry concerns and platform behaviour
When questioned during a Senate inquiry about the risk the legislation could chill free expression, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had not observed evidence of platforms systematically over-removing material.
"I haven’t seen any indication, particularly over the past two years, that companies are over-censoring," Inman Grant told the committee.
She argued instead that prevailing business models push platforms to maximize the amount of content shown to users, even if that material can be harmful or hurtful to the Australian community.
A point of contention raised at the hearings involved a clause that would require age verification where there is a risk children could access pornography. A senior Google executive in Australia testified that the provision could, in some interpretations, force the company to block under-18s from accessing its Gmail service. Representatives from Meta, TikTok and Snap expressed similar concerns, warning that the law could hand regulators broad discretion to decide what content constitutes harm.
Ambiguity and enforcement
Inman Grant acknowledged that parts of the bill might read as vague and suggested lawmakers could tighten the wording to reduce enforcement uncertainty.
"If there is opportunity, and we can get some more specificity, this will help us from an enforcement perspective," she said.
She also attributed most instances of excessive content removal to the operation of automated moderation systems without adequate human oversight, rather than to regulatory pressure.
The government has indicated a desire to have the legislation enacted by the end of the year.
($1 = 1.4447 Australian dollars)