Australian regulators are allowed to force social media companies to provide inside data on how they handle misinformation and disinformation as the government's latest move to curb the spread of misinformation by tech giants.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is also allowed to enforce internet industry codes on non -cooperative platforms in ensuring such efforts are achieved.
The action is in line with the world's efforts to reduce the spread of fake news online.
The effort has been spearheaded by the European Union (EU) which takes seriously the dissemination of false or false information to the point of danger, especially the dissemination of misinformation by the Russian media during the Ukraine invasion.
For the record, the ACMA reports as many as 4/5 adults in Australia are involved with misinformation about Covid-19 and 76% of them come in online platforms that spread fake news.
In the ACMA report, Australians on average get false or false information from giant platforms such as Facebook owned by Meta Platfrom Inc and Twitter Inc.
According to the report, false information is easy to identify with ‘emotive and interesting posts in small groups of online conspiracies’ and ‘reinforced by international influence, local community figures and media coverage’.
Later, the conspiracy group will force others to join media platforms that have loose police such as Telegram.
As a recap, Facebook was once sued in Australia for allegedly abetting fraud (scammer).
Meanwhile, DIGI, a body that represents Facebook; Google -owned Alphabet, Twitter and TikTok show support for government efforts to curb the spread of false news or misinformation.
Australian Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has strongly called on social media companies to take responsibility for the spread of false or false information on their platfrom.