After a dramatic exit last month, X looks set to return to Brazil after the social media giant reportedly complied with orders from the Brazilian Supreme Court. It’s too soon to tell, but X’s surprise turnaround may bode well for other countries looking to enforce stronger regulation measures over the platform’s activities. This includes Australia, where the federal government has recently tabled a revised draft bill on combatting misinformation and disinformation, which would give ACMA prescribed regulatory oversight over digital platforms. (Michael Davis gave his initial response to the revised bill in our previous CMT newsletter.)
As reported in the New York Times, X agreed to a court order to take down user accounts because they ‘threatened Brazil’s democracy’. X also appointed local legal representatives and paid its outstanding fines, which included a fine of about five million BRL (AU$1.33 billion) for the platform’s temporary reappearance in Brazil following the block.
Though not the first time X has complied with government demands, the episode did make for a grimly amusing back-and-forth between X owner Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. However, X is not out of the woods just yet: according to the court, X must file additional documentation before it can be restored in Brazil.
In Australia, proposed legislation will see X and other digital platforms subject to new obligations designed to manage the risk of misinformation and disinformation on their services. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, will have the power to create and approve binding codes and standards. ACMA will also adopt information gathering and record-keeping powers to assess compliance, as well as the authority to issue remedial directions in cases of non-compliance. Platforms may be fined if the standards or remedial directions are contravened.
Last week, right on cue, ACMA released its third misinformation report. It found that 75 per cent of Australians are concerned about misinformation, up from 69 per cent in 2022. It also found that transparency reports published under the new voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation do provide insights, but lack consistent Australian data. This means, says ACMA, ‘Australians cannot be confident that platforms are delivering on code commitments.’
The new bill seeks to improve on the voluntary code, but of course there are critics, including Musk, who called the Australian government 'fascists'. This left the government unconcerned, Bill Shorten quipping that Musk ‘had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra.’
Tamara Markus, CMT Research Assistant