‘Enforcement mode’: Australia must take fight to tech giants to make social media ban stick, experts warn

The federal government announced on Sunday it would introduce new legislation to double fines to $99m for platforms that breach Australia’s social media ban, and give the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, stronger information-gathering powers. Photograph: Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen The federal government announced on Sunday it would introduce new legislation to double fines to $99m for platforms that breach Australia’s social media ban, and give the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, stronger information-gathering powers. Photograph: Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Shutterstock ‘Enforcement mode’: Australia must take fight to tech giants to make social media ban stick, experts warn Doubled penalties will have little effect if platforms not held to account for the content they carry, observers say Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The government needs to switch into “enforcement mode” and take on tech giants over its social media ban after doubling fines, experts have warned. The federal government announced on Sunday it would introduce new legislation to double fines to $99m for platforms that breach the social media ban, and give the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, stronger information-gathering powers. Research this month suggested the majority of under-16s were bypassing age restrictions. The government said more than 5m accounts have been removed, deactivated or restricted since the ban was introduced on 10 December. But Catherine Page Jeffery, a senior lecturer in media and communications at the University of Sydney, said it was clear the government needed to do more to crack down on the platforms. She said digital duty of care legislation would help protect all users from the harms of social media. Australia to double penalty for social media ban breaches to $99m as tech giants accused of ‘not doing enough’ Read more “It is still early days yet not much has changed for under-16s with about 80% still stating they remain on social media,” she said. “Stronger enforcement mechanisms are clearly needed, but there’s no point in doubling the penalty if the regulator doesn’t enforce them, and move into the enforcement mode.” Page Jeffery said the under-16s ban eroded the rights of young people online, and that the platforms should be held more accountable for the content they carried. “This digital duty of care is really vital, and I think this would be much better policy rather than excluding younger people, because then it places this obligation on the platforms to be more proactive about making sure their platforms are safe, and that will include more transparency around algorithms,” she said. The government has promised to legislate a digital duty of care, but is still consulting on what form it would take. The Greens on Sunday called for the government to focus on that legislation, and use it to regulate social media algorithms. “When this [social media ban] legislation