Australia's changing how it regulates the internet — and no-one's paying attention
By technology reporter Ariel Bogle
Australia has passed a series of laws in recent years that enable government to take more control of online content.(Getty Images: DigitalVision)
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When we're scrolling online, most of us give little thought to what's happening behind the scenes — who is making decisions about the content we can or cannot see.
Often this decision is in corporate hands: Facebook, TikTok and most major social media platforms have rules about what material they accept, but enforcement can be inconsistent and less than transparent.
In recent years, the federal government has also passed a suite of often controversial legislation allowing it more control over what's online.
There's the new Online Safety Act, for example, which was quickly passed in the middle of last year.
Among other powers, it requires the technology industry — which includes not just social media, but messaging services like SMS, internet service providers and even the company behind your modem — to develop new codes that will regulate "harmful online content".
Drafted by industry groups, these codes will have a lot of say about how our technology is governed, but some are concerned they may have unintended consequences, not least because they borrow from an out-of-date classification scheme.
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