The Human Rights Law Centre has urged the Albanese Government to implement strong laws which protect people from the insidious harm caused by big tech platforms such as Meta, X, and Google.

In a submission to Statutory Review of the Online Safety Act 2021, the Human Rights Law Centre proposed the need for a risk-based regulatory approach based on the following principles:

• Duty of Care: Establishing a legislated duty of care that places strict obligations on digital platforms to ensure the safety of their users.

• Risk Assessment: Mandating platforms to conduct thorough assessments of their systems and products to identify risks to their users and to our democratic processes.

• Risk Mitigation: Requiring platforms to implement effective measures to mitigate identified risks.

• Transparency Measures: Mandating independently audited risk assessments that are  publicly available, along with requiring big tech platforms give vetted researchers access to public-interest data.

• Accountability Measures: Prioritising systemic changes over content removal and imposing significant penalties for non-compliance.

The Human Rights Law Centre is concerned that the current Act does not adequately address emerging online safety challenges and fails to incorporate robust measures for tackling misinformation and disinformation. It is essential that the Act is updated to reflect best practices and address new threats.

Read the submission here