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Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to a new week with the

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Speaker 1: Daily Oz. I'm Zara, I'm joined by Sam and today

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Speaker 1: we'll take you through the day's biggest stories. Before we do,

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Speaker 1: though a quick COVID wrap up. In New South Wales,

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Speaker 1: yesterday there were four hundred and seventy seven cases in

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Speaker 1: the Act. There were thirty cases in Victoria. Unfortunately, there

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Speaker 1: were one eight hundred and ninety new cases. Sam. At

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Speaker 1: the end of last week we hit seventy percent double

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Speaker 1: dose vax in New South Wales, which means only one

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Speaker 1: thing for New South Wales residents today. Take me through

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Speaker 1: what is changing, Zara.

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Speaker 2: We've woken up today on Freedom Day here in New

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Speaker 2: South Wales and that means stay at home orders have

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Speaker 2: been lifted for fully vaccinated residents. What that means in

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Speaker 2: practice is from today, households can have up to ten

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Speaker 2: adult visitors, Outdoor gatherings can have up to thirty people.

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Speaker 2: Funerals and weddings can proceed with one hundred guests, and

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Speaker 2: gym's cafes, restaurants, pools, shops, hairdressers and beauticians can reopen

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Speaker 2: with density limits. Premier Dominique Perreite had this to say

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Speaker 2: yesterday while announcing the Freedom Day measures well, it's a

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Speaker 2: big day for our state and to everyone across New

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Speaker 2: South Wales. You've earned it.

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Speaker 3: It's been one hundred.

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Speaker 2: Days if our blood, sweat and no beers, but we've

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Speaker 2: got it and we're back in action tomorrow. Blood sweat

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Speaker 2: and no beers now over to Victoria.

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Speaker 1: Yesterday, Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed that ten thousand fully vaccinated

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Speaker 1: spectators who live within twenty five k's of Flemington Racecourse

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Speaker 1: will be able to attend the Melbourne Cup this year.

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Speaker 1: Andrew's further confirmed that live music is set to return

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Speaker 1: with the Sydney Maya Music Bowl on the thirtieth of

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Speaker 1: October to progress, with thousands of people expected in the audience.

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Speaker 1: Here's what the Premier said yesterday. That's incredibly important for them,

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Speaker 1: It's incredibly important.

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Speaker 3: For the live music scene. We are the live music

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Speaker 3: capital of our nation.

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Speaker 1: They've done it very very tough.

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Speaker 3: We've been there to support them all the way through.

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Speaker 1: But they want to get out and perform. They want

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Speaker 1: to do what they do best.

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Speaker 2: Two of the largest power stations in Lebanon have been

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Speaker 2: forced to shut as a result of severe fuel shortages.

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Speaker 2: The two power stations account for forty percent of the

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Speaker 2: country's electricity, and the closures have led to the power

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Speaker 2: grid no longer working and it's not expected to restart

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Speaker 2: for several days.

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Speaker 1: Now to the good news, the UN Human Rights Council

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Speaker 1: has passed a resolution recognizing the right to a safe, clean,

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Speaker 1: healthy and sustainable environment as a human right. While of

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Speaker 1: course the resolution isn't actually legally binding, it could pay

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Speaker 1: a really significant role in shaping global standards. The measure

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Speaker 1: was proposed by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland.

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Speaker 1: There was a fair bit going on at the back

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Speaker 1: end of last week, so we didn't have an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to discuss something that the Prime Minister and the Deputy

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister came out and said on Thursday afternoon. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is all in the context of a recent High

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Speaker 1: Court decision called the Volor decision, which was about who

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Speaker 1: is responsible or who is liable for comments made in

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Speaker 1: the comments section on social media. We'll jump into that

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Speaker 1: a bit later, but first let's listen to what Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Scott Morrison said about defamation and social media.

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Speaker 3: Social media is becoming a coward's palace where people can

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Speaker 3: just go on there not say who they are, destroy

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Speaker 3: people's lives and say the most foul and offensive things

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Speaker 3: to people and do so within impunity. Now that's not

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Speaker 3: a free country where that happens. That's not right.

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Speaker 2: Morrison continued by saying, they should have to identify who

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Speaker 2: they are. And as you know the companies, if they're

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Speaker 2: not going to say who they are, well they're not

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Speaker 2: a platform anymore. They're a publisher. They're a publisher. And

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Speaker 2: you know what the implications of that means in terms

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Speaker 2: of these issues, Zara. For those who don't know what

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Speaker 2: the implications mean, why does it matter if we think

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Speaker 2: about Facebook or Instagram as a publisher.

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Speaker 1: Well, this all again goes back to this Vola High

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Speaker 1: Court decision, and that decision was about whether or not

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Speaker 1: media publishers were liable for the comments made in their

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Speaker 1: comments section by random people of the public on social media.

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Speaker 1: The court ultimately found that yes, that is the case.

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Speaker 1: So if the Daily is is to put up something

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Speaker 1: on social media, and if one of our followers is

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Speaker 1: to comment something hypothetically defametry, we as the media publisher,

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Speaker 1: are liable for whatever is said in that comment section.

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Speaker 1: But what Scott Morrison did was take that a step

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Speaker 1: further last week, so he was saying, well, it's even

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Speaker 1: bigger than that. It's actually that the social media giants themselves,

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Speaker 1: so the facebooks, the tiktoks, the twitters, they're actually liable

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Speaker 1: as publishers, and that's ultimately moving them out of this

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Speaker 1: private realm and into the public realm.

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Speaker 2: And I guess to skip ahead on the implications of

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Speaker 2: this classification, it really could mean in practice that the

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Speaker 2: social media companies decide that it's actually too risky to

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Speaker 2: operate in Australia because of this somewhat uncontrollable legal risk

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Speaker 2: of being sued at any moment for publishing in inverted

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Speaker 2: quotes the comments.

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Speaker 1: We haven't actually heard anything from the social media giants

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Speaker 1: on this. I can imagine that it might have come

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Speaker 1: out of the blue because this charge was actually led

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Speaker 1: by Barnaby Joyce and it was surrounding comments that were

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Speaker 1: made about his daughter that he deemed defamatory, and so

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Speaker 1: on Thursday he came out and made these comments about

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Speaker 1: social media giants and about the defamatory risk that they pose.

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Speaker 1: But this wasn't necessarily a huge government policy that had

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Speaker 1: been spoken about at length on Sunday. Communications Minister Paul

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Speaker 1: Fletcher said on Insiders that we expect a stronger position

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Speaker 1: from the platforms and that for a long time they've

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Speaker 1: been getting away with not taking any responsibility in relation

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Speaker 1: to the contents placed on their sites. And he said

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Speaker 1: that the government's looking at a whole range of things

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Speaker 1: in relation to social media giants, but on this idea

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Speaker 1: of social media giants being publisher, Sam, is that happening

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Speaker 1: anywhere else in the world.

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Speaker 2: It would be a world first, Sarah, And it's a

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Speaker 2: classification that I'm not sure the social media platforms will

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Speaker 2: be willing to entertain. And that's why I think there's

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Speaker 2: a real risk that they could actually leave the country

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Speaker 2: like they did with the new shutdown in February, if

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Speaker 2: something like this was to pass through now, just before

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Speaker 2: we all go and find alternative social media channels, it's

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Speaker 2: worth noting that there's a number of steps and laws

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Speaker 2: and time that would pass before something like this would

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Speaker 2: become a reality. It's not going to happen tomorrow, but

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Speaker 2: it's definitely been expedited after the comments from the Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister last week. You also have to remember that this

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Speaker 2: has all happened against the backdrop of a pretty bad

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Speaker 2: month for Facebook. In particular, we had a shutdown of

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Speaker 2: their services for a number of hours last week that

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Speaker 2: raised questions all around the world as to just how

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Speaker 2: reliant on Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp we really are.

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Speaker 2: Then we heard a testimony in front of a Senate

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Speaker 2: subcommittee from a previous product manager at Facebook, Francis Horgan,

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Speaker 2: who details about the knowledge that Facebook has about how

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Speaker 2: damaging their content is for young people on the platform. Interestingly,

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Speaker 2: we haven't heard too much from Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg released

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Speaker 2: a written statement last week that at a high level

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Speaker 2: invalidated a lot of the claims made by the Facebook

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Speaker 2: whistleblower at the Senate subcommittee, and we haven't really heard

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Speaker 2: too much from Facebook's Australian headquarters either.

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Speaker 1: So, Sam, the key distinction that the Prime Minister made

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Speaker 1: on Thursday is that if the social media giants can't

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Speaker 1: guarantee that users will not be anonymous, that was a

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Speaker 1: lot of double negatives. I'm sorry, but if people can

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Speaker 1: remain anonymous, it ultimately makes them publishers. What do you

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Speaker 1: think do you think that people should be able to

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Speaker 1: remain anonymous and logistically, pragmatically, is it actually possible to

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Speaker 1: stop or patrol people being anonymous online?

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Speaker 2: Ultimately, at the end of the day, I really do

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Speaker 2: think it has to be a balance between everybody's competing interests.

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Speaker 2: So I think David Spears made a really interesting point

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Speaker 2: on Insiders yesterday morning on the ABC when he questioned

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Speaker 2: Paul Fletcher about the fact that the government's very keen

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Speaker 2: to protect free speech when it comes to racial discrimination laws,

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Speaker 2: but now when it comes to social media, they're looking

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Speaker 2: to restrict it. On the other hand, online safety is

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Speaker 2: something that we are living through and growing up with,

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Speaker 2: and we are going to need to see changes on

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Speaker 2: social media to protect people because there is now unequivocal,

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Speaker 2: above questioned evidence that social media can harm young people.

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Speaker 2: I could envision a world where there are license checks

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Speaker 2: when making a social media account in a similar way

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Speaker 2: to when you're opening a bank account, and I think

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Speaker 2: that most of us would be okay with that, because ultimately,

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Speaker 2: we use social media to connect with those around us,

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Speaker 2: and we'd be willing to validate our identities to continue

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Speaker 2: using that service. However, that's not in line with the

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Speaker 2: ideology of a lot of the social media companies and

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Speaker 2: that's where the friction is really going to be.

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Speaker 1: While it's not clear how the government will move to

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Speaker 1: legislate this, we do also know that at a state left,

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Speaker 1: the attorney's generals in every state and territory in the

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Speaker 1: country are looking at how to update defamation laws to

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Speaker 1: reflect the realities of social media. So this isn't only

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Speaker 1: happening at a federal level. There's also movement at a

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Speaker 1: state level. Either way, it's a really interesting space that,

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Speaker 1: as Sam and I are publishes, will affect us personally

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Speaker 1: and professionally, but will also have major impacts on the

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Speaker 1: way that we use and interact with social media. So

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Speaker 1: we'll be sure to update you on any introduction of legislation,

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Speaker 1: both at a state or federal level, and let you

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Speaker 1: know what is happening in the world of social media.

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Speaker 1: Until then, follow us on Instagram at the Daily Os.

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Speaker 1: It's wherever a quarter of a million young people get

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Speaker 1: their news every day, and we'd love to have you

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Speaker 1: there alongside us. Have a brilliant Monday,