The Australian government is considering passing a bill that would fine online platforms for spreading misinformation or disinformation. However, mainstream news outlets would be protected from penalties for spreading similar content.
The government declared it would force platforms to set codes of conduct to govern how to stop allegedly dangerous falsehoods from spreading, which would need to be approved by a regulator.
If the platform did not set its own guidelines, the regulator would force its own guidelines on them and fine the platform for not complying.
Violations for not preventing the spread of material denounced by the government would result in fines of up to 5% of a company's global revenue.
'Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians.'
According to Reuters, the banned subjects include content that allegedly hurts election integrity or public health, calls for denouncing a group, legally injuring (defaming) a person, and speech that allegedly disrupts key infrastructure or emergency services. The latter would likely already be a crime.
"Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society, and economy," Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.
She added, "Doing nothing and allowing this problem to fester is not an option."
Political commentator Lewis Brackpool said the policy was incompatible with the "once great principles of western nations."
"Governments across the west have been captured by ideological NGOs, lobbyists, and the activist class who look to not only seek control of citizens’ speech, but push for the demise of the west for their own perverse utopian system," Brackpool told Blaze News.
Brackpool pointed to the recent banning of Elon Musk's X in Brazil, which attempted to fine the platform similarly for noncompliance in removing alleged disinformation.
Brackpool added, "there is a dark corner that globalists and politicians are turning to. After the X ban in Brazil, authoritarian western governments around the world are mirroring this trend."
The Australian government claimed there is an overwhelming demand for a crackdown on misinformation; it cited a poll from the Australian Media Literary Alliance that stated 80% of respondents want the spread of misinformation to be dealt with.
The communications minister said that the bill would include protection for professional news, a move that mirrors social media platforms in the past. Sites like YouTube and Facebook have previously used labeling certain news outlets as reputable sources to downrank independent outlets in their algorithms.
Religious and artistic content would also allegedly be protected under the proposed law.
Musk had a simple response upon hearing about the legislation, calling the Australia government "fascists" in a post on X.
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