News Corp boss calls for ‘social licence’ laws to regulate big tech in Australia
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The news: News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller has called on the Australian government to consider introducing tougher “social licence” laws to regulate big tech companies in Australia.
The context: In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Miller said recent moves from social media companies including Instagram and Facebook parent Meta and Elon Musk’s X Corp justified more stringent regulation.
The regulation, Miller said, could take shape as “a package of laws” and requirements tech companies would need to meet in order to access Australian users, including liability for content amplified and curated by social media algorithms in Australia.
Miller suggested the licence could also require platforms to have effective complaints handling systems including local call centres, and carry penalties including criminal sanctions if breached.
Meta announced in March that it wouldn't renew lucrative content deals with 13 Australian news publishers, struck in 2021 under the threat of the news media bargaining code. Meta’s decision was a contributing factor to a significant restructure of News Corp’s local operations announced to staff last week.
X, meanwhile, became the subject of scrutiny in April for fighting Australia’s eSafety Commissioner over an order to remove content related to a violent Sydney stabbing for users of the platform globally. TikTok has also been the target of since-abandoned regulatory scrutiny in Australia.
Miller compared big tech firms to mining companies and suggested they be regulated in a similar way.
What they said: “This idea of a social licence is neither over reach, nor pie in the sky,” Miller said.
“Let’s go back to a real world example. A company may want to come to Australia, to mine the mineral of the moment: copper. We rightly regard that copper as Australian property, and if you want to extract it, here are just a few of the things Australia requires. You will pay a royalty to access the copper,” he said.
“You will fairly negotiate with the land owners. You will hire Australians and meet all our industrial relations standards, safety requirements and awards. You will meet all environmental requirements and you will pay to fix any damage you cause, or face penalties,” he continued.
“In my view the tech monopolies are also mining companies. They don’t mine our minerals, they mine our lives. Those lives are Australia’s greatest resource, and we have a responsibility to protect ourselves and the way we want to live.”
The source: National Press Club
