ACCAN recently submitted to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee’s consultation on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 (the Bill).

In ACCAN’s view the Bill provides a foundation for tackling misinformation and disinformation on digital communications platforms. However, the Bill should be expanded to explicitly include measures which address consumer harms, such as minimum dispute resolution standards, which could be expanded to ensure appropriate complaints do not fall through the gaps.

This submission recommended that the Government:

• Adopt the proposed expansion and modernisation of the powers of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to allow them to establish minimum internal complaints and dispute resolution processes.
• Require an external dispute resolution (EDR) process in conjunction with mandatory internal dispute resolution processes for digital communications platforms.
• Require the ACMA to publish information on measures taken by digital communications platforms in response to misinformation codes.
• Include further examples of possible misinformation codes that relate to consumer harms on digital communications platforms.
• Include provisions for consumer education about communications issues.

Download: ACCAN submission to Misinformation Bill 2024300.1 KB

Download: ACCAN submission to Misinformation Bill 2024203.17 KB