{"id":692588,"date":"2026-05-25T02:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692588\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T02:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:01:11","slug":"legal-warning-to-small-businesses-after-spate-of-ai-anthony-albanese-memes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692588\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal warning to small businesses after spate of AI Anthony Albanese memes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government announced sweeping reforms in the budget<\/a> that removed a discount on the CGT, meaning those running small businesses could pay up to 47 per cent in taxes to the government if they sell their business.\ufeff<\/p>\n

It has been met with condemnation, with owners around the country criticising the changes, jokingly calling the prime minister a ‘shareholder’ of the business and using AI images of him “working” for the company.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Business owners taking part in an AI meme trend mocking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over capital gains tax changes could risk legal action. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

While the stunt went viral on social media, legal experts warn that business owners could risk legal action.<\/p>\n

“Using an AI-generated image of a politician or celebrity is not automatically illegal in Australia, because there is no broad standalone ‘image right’ that gives a person complete control over every commercial use of their likeness,” lawyer Charlotte Hale from LegalVision said.<\/p>\n

“The legal risk starts when a post creates the impression that the person endorsed, approved, sponsored or attended the business.”<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The posts claim Albanese is a 47 per cent partner in the business, a reference to the larger tax small business owners may have to pay if they sell their business after CGT changes. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Hale warns businesses could still be at risk, even if their intent wasn’t to mislead customers.<\/p>\n

“Images, social media posts and testimonials can all be misleading if they create a false overall impression, regardless of whether the business intended to mislead,” Hale said.<\/p>\n

“The safer side is obvious parody, political commentary or clearly labelled AI-generated content that does not imply endorsement or promote a commercial product.”<\/p>\n

She said businesses can distance themselves from legal problems if they leave a clear disclaimer that the post is parody or that the images of Albanese have been generated by AI.<\/p>\n

\"LukeThe warning comes after some small businesses fell into hot water over similar posts about the visit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. (Instagram\/@thisisninascucina)However, it may not be enough, referencing how some small businesses may have breached Australian consumer law by creating fake images<\/a> of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘visiting’ their stores during their visit to Australia last month.<\/p>\n

“A disclaimer helps, but it is not a cure if the overall impression is still misleading,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Even if intended as a joke, some viewers may believe the visit happened.”<\/p>\n

“The line is crossed more quickly when the image is commercial, realistic, undisclosed, or tied to a false claim.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government announced sweeping reforms in the budget that removed a discount on the CGT, meaning those running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-692588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692588","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=692588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}