5 Necessary Elements for Digital Platform Regulation

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This report draws on previous thinking about the five elements of tech regulation that would be necessary to achieve effective, comprehensive digital regulation in Australia, building on this to include implementation guidelines. As the discussion has advanced, we hope these implementation guidelines add clarity about how to move from slogans to meaningful change.

 

The Albanese Government has recognised that Australia needs a comprehensive regulatory model that addresses the underlying systems of digital platforms, rather than continuing to rely on content-based regulatory responses. In November 2024, the Minister for Communications announced an intention to introduce a legislated duty of care, citing a ‘growing global effort’ and an intent to ‘deliver a more systemic and preventative approach to making online services safer and healthier’.

The model the Albanese Government introduces to the Parliament should include all five elements required for systemic and preventative digital regulation, namely:

  1. An overarching duty of care owed by digital platforms to Australian users;
  2. Requirements for platforms to assess all their systems and elements for a defined set of risks;
  3. Requirements for platforms to implement reasonable steps to mitigate each risk;
  4. Five sources of transparency, including annual risk assessments, prescriptive public transparency reports, independent audits of risk assessments and transparency reports, data portals for ad repositories and content moderation decisions, and researcher access to public interest data; and
  5. Enforceable regulations and empowered regulators to compel behavioural change.

Note that these need to be implemented alongside a reformed and updated Privacy Act that protects Australians from predatory digital business practices. The proposals put forward in the Privacy Act Review Report are strong and move in the right direction. These are needed to mitigate the personal and national security risks that social media platforms and other digital platforms routinely generate.