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Speaker 1: Good morning and happy Tuesday. Welcome to the last day

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Speaker 1: of the month.

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Speaker 2: And that means it's the last day of November. You'll

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Speaker 2: see some particularly hairy upper lips around town today. Make

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Speaker 2: sure to donate if that's something you want to do.

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Speaker 1: I do love a charity, but I am even more

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Speaker 1: excited to see Sam with normal facial hair after today.

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Speaker 1: Turning our attention to news, and unfortunately we are still

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Speaker 1: speaking about the omicron variant. Sam, take us through what's happening.

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Speaker 2: So yesterday Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that the Australian

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Speaker 2: Technical Advisory Group on Immunizations we know them as a TAGI,

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Speaker 2: will review advice and time frames for vaccine booster shots

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Speaker 2: amid the spread of the omicron COVID nineteen variant. The

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Speaker 2: federal government's now seeking advice on whether the current six

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Speaker 2: month timeframe to receive the booster shot should be shortened.

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Speaker 2: We've heard four months being thrown around a lot.

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Speaker 1: South African President Cyril Ramafosa has called for countries to

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Speaker 1: overturn the travel bands that have been put on the

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Speaker 1: nation amid the spread of omicron COVID nineteen variant. Now Australia,

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Speaker 1: for one, has adopted some restrictions for people coming in

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Speaker 1: from these countries, as have many other nations across the world.

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Speaker 1: After the variant was flagged first by South African scientists

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Speaker 1: just days ago. Ramafosa has labeled the restrictions as quote

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Speaker 1: scientifically unjustified.

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Speaker 2: And in some tech news this morning. Regulatory changes will

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Speaker 2: now enable telecommunications companies in Australia to have access to

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Speaker 2: additional data around scams and this is all meant to

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Speaker 2: help us identify and block scam text messages. The changes

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Speaker 2: mean the companies can now use more sophisticated technology and

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Speaker 2: algorithms to try to stop the messages. According to the

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Speaker 2: HBC's Scam Watch, Australians have lost eighty seven million dollars

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Speaker 2: to phone, call and text message scams so far in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one alone.

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Speaker 1: You don't want to know how long it took us

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Speaker 1: to find a good news this morning, and we will

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Speaker 1: not tell you, but we can tell you. Today is

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Speaker 1: Giving Tuesday. So Giving Tuesday falls on the Chuesday after

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Speaker 1: the US holiday of Thanksgiving, and it's seen as the

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Speaker 1: antidote to the consumer craziness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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Speaker 1: So the event encourages people and organizations to come together

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Speaker 1: and donate either goods, voices, services to celebrate the work

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Speaker 1: of the not for profit sector. On this day. In

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, charities in a US raise an astounding three

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Speaker 1: point five billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: So this morning we wanted to cover a story that

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Speaker 2: snuck through to the keeper of this podcast because of

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Speaker 2: that silly little variant. A big announcement from Prime Minister

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Speaker 2: Scott Morrison he made on Sunday regarding social media laws.

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Speaker 2: Here's what Morrison said on the weekend.

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Speaker 3: The online world shouldn't be a wild West where where

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Speaker 3: bots and bigots and trolls and others can just anonymously

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Speaker 3: harm people and hurt people, harass them and bully them

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Speaker 3: and sledge them.

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Speaker 2: So Zara, this is big news, especially for us in

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Speaker 2: the news industry, but for everybody online. This is a

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Speaker 2: big step for the regulation of social media companies. We

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Speaker 2: haven't really seen this happen anywhere else in the world.

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Speaker 2: What's the key parts of the proposed legislation here?

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Speaker 1: So there are a couple key points. Firstly, the proposed

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Speaker 1: legislation will reverse the High Court's decision earlier this year

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Speaker 1: that meant that news publishers were to be held responsible

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Speaker 1: for harmful comments made in their comments section. Sam and

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Speaker 1: I spoke about this at length. It was really worrying

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Speaker 1: for publishers like us. This is a big move that

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Speaker 1: the government has taken. It's overriding essentially this Vola High

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Speaker 1: Court decision. Secondly, the legislation will give social media companies

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Speaker 1: a defense from being the publisher of the harmful post

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Speaker 1: or comment if they can show that they have a

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Speaker 1: complaints procedure in place for defamatory and harmful posts. So

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Speaker 1: that means that these social media companies essentially need to

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Speaker 1: have an Australian operation that has a complaints mechanism in

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Speaker 1: built in its systems.

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Speaker 2: So let's break that down a little bit. Let's imagine

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Speaker 2: that you have seen a comments from a bully on

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Speaker 2: social media. You can now, under this proposed legislation report

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Speaker 2: that comment to the platform. The platform then has to

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Speaker 2: make sure that they review that comment. And here's the

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Speaker 2: interesting bit. If the platform decides that it's not worthy

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Speaker 2: to be taken down or fails to have the correct

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Speaker 2: procedures in place, a federal court in Australia can actually

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Speaker 2: order the social media company to hand you the details

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Speaker 2: of the person who posted, even if they have a

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Speaker 2: username that isn't a real name, so essentially, if they're

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Speaker 2: an online troll, these details could include things like an

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Speaker 2: email address, a mobile phone number. And the reason why

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Speaker 2: you'll be able to get those details now is if

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Speaker 2: you want to pursue a civil action against them, So

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Speaker 2: if you want to sue them for defamation online. The

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Speaker 2: idea is basically to make sure that social media companies

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Speaker 2: have nowhere to run with this kind of thing, that

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Speaker 2: they have to take responsibility. Interestingly, they also talked about

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Speaker 2: the fact that they know that social media companies are

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Speaker 2: going to have a lot of cash and they're going

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Speaker 2: to be ready to defend themselves in these suits. In

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Speaker 2: some news that was reported last night, there's even a

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Speaker 2: consideration by the federal government to have a community justice

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Speaker 2: type model to help fund the ability to sue somebody

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Speaker 2: for online trolling and zaire. This really highlights a key

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Speaker 2: issue with the proposed legislation that has been highlighted a

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Speaker 2: number of times in the two days since, and that

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Speaker 2: is the access to legal services. It's the ability to

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Speaker 2: actually sue somebody, and that isn't accessible for everyone. If

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Speaker 2: we look at who has taken major defamation actions in

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Speaker 2: the last twelve months. It's high profile journalists, it's politicians,

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Speaker 2: it's people with access to resources, and so whilst the

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Speaker 2: government's clearly acknowledged that this is an issue with the

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Speaker 2: planned community justice model, it's really going to stand in

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Speaker 2: the way for a lot of people, a lot of

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Speaker 2: young people, especially taking a legal action against an online troll.

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Speaker 2: The other key concern with the proposed legislation is whether

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Speaker 2: social media companies actually have the data that will be

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Speaker 2: required by the court in the case that a troll

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Speaker 2: is report and if they don't, what extra mechanisms are

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Speaker 2: going to have to put in place to gather that data. Now,

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Speaker 2: this might be a deal breaker for some social media

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Speaker 2: companies who might decide it's not even worth being present

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Speaker 2: in Australia if they are forced to ask users for

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Speaker 2: mobile phone numbers and email addresses and the like. Anonymity

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Speaker 2: online has become a key attraction for some social media platforms,

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Speaker 2: so the fact that this now really won't be available

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Speaker 2: on the major social players is going to be a

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Speaker 2: fascinating decision for these tech giants to grapple with.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, laws like this have to be passed in parliament,

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Speaker 1: so it's interesting to note that Federal Opposition leader Anthony

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Speaker 1: Alberzi said the Labor would be waiting to see the

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Speaker 1: actual detail in the laws before deciding on a position

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Speaker 1: either way. He did say, though, that it was not

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Speaker 1: unreasonable to suggest that social media companies should know the

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Speaker 1: identity of their users. He said, and I quote, it

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Speaker 1: shouldn't be beyond the capacity of social media to be

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Speaker 1: able to identify people who are engaged in inappropriate activity online,

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Speaker 1: he said, just like if someone in a public space

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Speaker 1: says something that's toffamatory or in it or hurtful, they're

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Speaker 1: doing it face to face, you can identify them. He

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Speaker 1: then went on to make the argument that people shouldn't

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Speaker 1: be able to be anonymous on Twitter or anywhere else

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Speaker 1: really if they're engaging in inappropriate activity, and that is

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Speaker 1: certainly something we have heard from the government too.

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Speaker 2: And it's something that the Australian public seemed to get

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Speaker 2: behind as well. In a recent poll published in the

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Speaker 2: Sydney Morning Herald, seventy percent of those surveyed thought that

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Speaker 2: you should not be able to remain anonymous online. So

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Speaker 2: it's certainly hitting a sow point for a lot of Australia.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think that we should be asking our audience

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Speaker 1: what they think, so we'll put up a poll today

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Speaker 1: and we'll definitely be interested to hear what you the

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Speaker 1: TDA audience actually think about this legislation and the idea

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Speaker 1: and the premise that underpins it.

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Speaker 2: Feel free to vote on your normal Insta account or

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Speaker 2: on your Finsta doesn't matter now, but we might be

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Speaker 2: able to unearth your true identity. That's all we've got

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Speaker 2: time for today on the podcast. We would love to

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Speaker 2: hear from you on what you think of the proposed legislation.

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Speaker 2: Have a vote, have a comment, and we'll speak to

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Speaker 2: you tomorrow