September 13, 2024
Legislation proposed by the Albanese government could give social media companies the power to decide "what is true and what is false", Liberal senator James Paterson has warned.
The government's proposed misinformation laws are part of a broader pack of bills targeting social media firms.
The crackdown comes amid widespread concerns of falsehoods, both deliberate and unintentional, flooding social media about contentious political issues. But Senator Paterson said he was worried it could allow social media platforms to censor "legitimately held political beliefs".
"What worries me about the media reporting so far about this Bill is that it includes, apparently, an environment that the social media companies will determine what is true and what is false," Senator Paterson told Sky News.
"That's a deeply disturbing thing because we know that, in recent times, (they have) got those things wrong on many occasions.
"Australians' legitimately held political beliefs should not be censored by either the government or by foreign social media platforms."
