Australia Announces Major Crackdown On Social Media

Australia announced on Friday that it would hold a parliamentary inquiry to look into the negative impacts of social media platforms, saying they have significant reach and control over what Australians see online, with almost no scrutiny.

The government has criticised social media platforms for not being quick enough to remove violent posts and seeks more oversight over content posted on Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Facebook, ByteDance's TikTok and Elon Musk-owned X.

"Across a range of issues, whether it be the issue of domestic violence, whether it be the radicalisation of our young people, across a range of areas, something that keeps popping up over and over again is the role of social media," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.

"(They) can be very positive but also can have a negative influence which is there."

Albanese's Labor government is already in a legal fight with Musk's X over a regulatory order asking the platform to take down videos of the stabbing attack on an Assyrian church bishop in Sydney last month.

The government said it was still determining the terms and scope of the inquiry and did not specify who it would ask to testify. Some Australian parliamentary inquiries have powers to summon individuals to hearings.