Australia passed on a new Misinformation law!

As part of this week's episode of "this week in social media" , we reported that Australia is looking to pass on a new misinformation law!

As well as hearing this week that Australia is also looking to pass on a law, that would mean social media platforms could be “fined up to 5% of their global revenue.” if they fail to remove dis and misinformation.

As I would say and my research in this would show, still to this day, there hasn’t be a clear description to explain what Dis or Misinformation is, and there has been some talk, and worry that this bill would give more power to “regulators and governments to potentially silence dissenting opinion, dependent on their interpretation of the law.”

However the Australian minister for communications Michelle Rowland said :

“Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy. Doing nothing and allowing this problem to fester is not an option.”

And according to the Australian media literacy alliance “80% of Australians say the spread of misinformation on social media needs to be addressed.”

So clearly there needs to be more “control” for the social media platform that holds “such power”, however surely we should be careful with how we go down to doing this. Because if we are not careful, it would be used to “shut down” the other side of a point or agreement that some may want and should have the right to say, within a “free state anyway”

Do you think this law is too vague? Does it bring our own EU law, around the same topic into question about how we go about taking the challenge, of “misinformation” or “disinformation”