{"id":65694,"date":"2025-08-13T18:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T18:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/65694\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T18:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T18:15:11","slug":"famous-influencers-to-wage-ground-war-on-australian-government-over-social-media-ban-documents-reveal-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/65694\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous influencers to wage \u2018ground war\u2019 on Australian government over social media ban, documents reveal | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s online safety chief has warned the Albanese government of the imminent \u201cground war\u201d by tech giants harnessing \u201cthe most famous influencers\u201d before a social media ban for under-16s later this year.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese announced in July the government\u2019s decision<\/a> to include YouTube in the restrictions set to begin from December, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the video platform.<\/p>\n

The decision followed advice from the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, that its exclusion was inconsistent with the law\u2019s intention given it had similar functionality to other social media sites, such as TikTok<\/a> and Instagram.<\/p>\n

In emails to the communication minister\u2019s office, Inman Grant said she anticipated the laws would invoke a \u201clobbying surge\u201d brought on by concerns the ban would affect advertising revenue, a trove of newly released documents tabled in the Senate on Wednesday show.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFinally, we are anticipating a potential lobbying surge by the currently excluded platform and I expect the ground war will be at the education level \u2013 and will also involve the harnessing of the most famous influencers,\u201d Inman Grant wrote to a senior adviser in Anika Wells\u2019 office in June after a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that this is about monetisation of the millions of under 16\u2019s on these platforms who HAVE accounts today \u2013 but may then not at commencement. This will have an impact on attracting certain advertisers that may be targeting the 8-15 demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a meeting with YouTube<\/a> officials in July, Inman Grant reiterated her advice to the minister to exclude the video platform, noting its key arguments were \u201cmoot\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf YouTube is adamant that they are not an age-restricted social media service then any concerns held by Google about the impact of them not being specifically exempted in the rules seem to me to be moot,\u201d she said in an email five days before the government\u2019s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the service isn\u2019t caught by Part 4A (as Google<\/a> asserts) then it logically can\u2019t be exempted.\u201d Part 4A of the act defines what an age-restricted social media platform is.<\/p>\n

The documents, which detail the discussions around determining which social media sites the restrictions would be applied to, also show the department\u2019s concern about information from meeting with TikTok officials leaking to the media.<\/p>\n

In a June briefing note ahead of a meeting between Wells\u2019 chief of staff and TikTok officials, the department flagged they would \u201clikely raise the exclusion of YouTube\u201d from the rules.<\/p>\n

It also warned some information from meetings with the previous communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had been shared with the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, TikTok has sought to exploit perceived misalignments in position between the department and Minister Rowland\u2019s office. Statements made in meetings with TikTok have appeared in the media shortly after the meetings,\u201d the briefing note said.<\/p>\n

TikTok declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Three days after the meeting with TikTok officials, Wells sought advice from Inman Grant about minor changes to the draft rules, which included YouTube remaining exempt.<\/p>\n

Inman Grant\u2019s advice was delivered the following week offering five options, with the first being to remove YouTube\u2019s exclusion. The department agreed with this advice.<\/p>\n

Wells met with the Wiggles chief executive, Kate Chiodo, on 30 June to discuss their support for YouTube\u2019s exclusion from the ban.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s briefing note confirms thinking in the federal government that YouTube Kids \u2013 a video-streaming version of the platform that is accessed by parents or guardians and doesn\u2019t allow comments \u2013 will likely be excluded from the ban. It said the Wiggles and other early learning content creators were \u201chighly unlikely to be impacted\u201d by the restrictions because they could still be viewed through YouTube Kids.<\/p>\n

However, the department did concede the earnings of content creators could be affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile access for Australian children is unlikely to be affected, revenue to creators like the Wiggles could be affected. In particular, while YouTube offers a number of ways for creators to monetise their content, many of these focus on creators\u2019 subscriber numbers,\u201d the briefing note said.<\/p>\n

Inman Grant\u2019s advice to Wells included another option to consider re-drafting the rules to ensure platforms can be exempted for both their purpose, as well as the harm they risk.<\/p>\n

The department agreed with the advice but recommended to Wells they be considered as part of a two-year review of the laws after coming into effect, noting the complexity of the change.<\/p>\n

After a meeting between Inman Grant and an adviser from Wells\u2019 office, the eSafety commissioner said the change was \u201ccritical\u201d given some platforms could \u201cdial back their policies or eviscerate their trust and safety teams\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, this is critical from an enforceability perspective and, as I said yesterday, the risk profiles and threat vectors change regulatory on platforms \u2013 particularly when they dial back their policies or eviscerate their trust and safety teams,\u201d Inman Grant wrote in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother trend we have called the platforms on is allowing the veritable \u2018colonisation\u2019 of organised criminals on their platforms to target under-aged users with sexual extortion and other social engineering scams because they are failing (quite deliberately) to prevent \u2018recidivism\u2019 on their platforms by not tackling the mass proliferation of fake and imposter accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells arranged a meeting with YouTube\u2019s global CEO, Neal Mohan, on 3 July to discuss \u201cYouTube\u2019s desire to be excluded from the social media minimum age obligation\u201d, according to the documents. It said Wells was \u201cseeking information on why YouTube believes it is different from other social media platforms and warrants an exclusion\u201d.<\/p>\n

The documents also reveal the Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegel, met with Wells on 30 July to discuss the ban, in a meeting that was facilitated by Australia\u2019s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has gone to Snapchat and YouTube for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s online safety chief has warned the Albanese government of the imminent \u201cground war\u201d by tech giants harnessing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-65694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}