Australia poised to significantly increase regulation of OTTs

Australia is the latest country to cast an eye towards Silicon Valley, revamping rules to create a regulatory framework with greater oversight and authority over the booming digital ecosystem.

While the digital economy has operated in a relatively tether-free fashion to date, various scandals throughout the last 18 months have shown these companies are not mature or honest enough to manage themselves. Facebook has drawn the lion’s share of the headlines, but the social media giant is not alone in abusing the system; this is a pandemic with Silicon Valley as ground zero.

“While online services like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google bring undeniable social and economic benefits to Australians, they have now become global giants with significant market power in Australia,” said Nerida O’Loughlin, Chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

“As aggregators, curators and distributors of content – in particular news and journalistic content—digital platforms have significant influence. But they are not fully considered within current media and communications regulation.”

The ACMA statement follows the Digital Platforms Inquiry Preliminary Report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which calls for regulatory reform to tackle newly emerging segments of the digital economy, as well as greater powers to gain insight into how businesses such as Google and Facebook actually work.

This has been the great conundrum of the last few years; these companies have incredible power and influence over society and business, though due to opaque transparency reports and sheer complexity, few understand the cogs of the digital machine. This is not a healthy position; these companies should not be allowed to operate in a cloud of confusion, such is the power they wield. It would be irresponsible of any government to allow such a dangerous status quo to continue.

What this report suggests is the creation of a new set of rules, which would govern the digital economy as what it is. These companies are no-longer simply platforms, and they are not digital publishers. For years, regulators have tried to squeeze them into existing regulatory frameworks and it has not worked. The creation of new rules, fit for purpose to tackle the digital economy and specific to the companies which dominate it, are critical.

As you can probably imagine, the internet giants are not particularly happy with this assault on their freedoms. Facebook has accused the ACCC of protecting traditional media titles at the expense of digital and the consumer, while Google has suggested the ACCC is ill-informed when it comes to basic understanding of the current state-of-affairs.

The aggressive and patronising objections to the ACCC and ACMA should come as little surprise as the internet giants face greater controls on their businesses throughout the world. Australia and Europe seem to be the tip of the spear, but others will soon follow suit once they see how regulations can be effectively reformed. Unfortunately for the internet giants, there is not a single focal point.

In Europe, certain states are putting stricter rules in place for the removal of offensive materials, Germany is leading the charge here. GDPR is a European-wide response to privacy concerns. The tax-avoidance schemes are being tackled by France and the UK. The Netherlands is tabling new rules which would made foreign acquisitions more difficult. The digital business model is being assaulted from numerous angles, and quite rightly so.

Over the last decade, the internet giants have become experts at wriggling through the red-tape maze and exposing the regulatory grey areas. This is only possible because rules have not been designed specifically for the internet economy, an anomaly in today’s world. Every other industry has rules which are designed specifically for those circumstances, and the world is starting to wake up to the need for the same here.

Arguments against might take the form of slowing progress, but the internet giants have not shown themselves responsible enough to self-regulate. Cambridge Analytica, overly-complex T&Cs, data breaches, insecure databases, irresponsible data processing and handling activities, hosting of offensive material and unauthorised location tracking scandals are just a few areas which need to be addressed.

Regulators and legislators need to wake up and start governing the digital economy. Thankfully, Australia and Europe are taking the fight to Silicon Valley.