{"id":924775,"date":"2026-10-11T23:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924775\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T23:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:50:14","slug":"greens-prepare-for-fight-with-labor-over-social-media-algorithm-reform-with-pervert-glasses-in-its-sights-australian-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924775\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens prepare for fight with Labor over social media algorithm reform, with \u2018pervert glasses\u2019 in its sights | Australian Greens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greens will push Labor to dramatically change new laws designed to rein in big tech, calling for individuals to have the right to take platforms to court and win financial compensation.<\/p>\n

As Labor prepares to introduce its planned digital duty of care laws<\/a> into parliament this week, the Greens say they will drive a bargain in exchange for support, including pushing for fines by the eSafety commissioner to be levied as a percentage of corporations\u2019 global revenue rather than set amounts.<\/p>\n

The Coalition is opposed to the duty of care plan, giving the Greens the upper hand in negotiations. Their communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young<\/a>, said the laws should do more to address the addictive nature of platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo meaningfully change the behaviour of big tech companies, the digital duty of care laws must include the right for Australians who have been harmed online to be able to take legal action and seek compensation for the damage done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnforcement of the digital duty of care cannot be left to the eSafety commissioner alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo really put Australians\u2019 online safety at the heart of this reform, individuals and the community need to have the right to take on big tech through a private right of action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The negotiations will be the first under the new Greens leader, David Shoebridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has flagged a firmer negotiating approach than under his predecessor, Larissa Waters, potentially frustrating the government\u2019s agenda in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n

Shoebridge is expected to introduce a bill to stop the importation of so-called \u201cpervert glasses\u201d and other wearable technology this week.<\/p>\n

Labor wants progress on its remaining budget bills, including moves to make tax treatment for trusts less generous.<\/p>\n

Last month the government said it would legislate the duty of care and establishing fines of more than A$100m for platforms not protecting users from harm.<\/p>\n

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Popular platforms as well as online games, apps and AI chatbots will be required to protect against specific harms, including pornography; eating disorder content; misogynistic content; content that glorifies crime or life-endangering stunts; and content that could cause serious distress, including abuse and bullying.<\/p>\n

The regulator, the eSafety commissioner, will have the power to issue removal notices to companies, with operators required to document measures taken to address online harms.<\/p>\n

Users over 16 years of age will also be given new tools to turn off algorithm-driven content.<\/p>\n

But Hanson-Young has warned that the proposed fines are too small to change the behaviour of tech giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cFines for breaches must be tied to a percentage of global revenue,\u201d she said. \u201cThe threat of serious fines and compensation is the only way to force these companies to clean up their act and proactively provide a safe environment for their users.\u201d<\/p>\n

The communications minister, Anika Wells, will address the National Press Club on Thursday. She has pledged to work constructively with the Greens and any other party to deliver basic safety standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want these platforms to embed safety by design,\u201d Wells said. \u201cSome of them have had 15 years to do it of their own accord. They haven\u2019t, so now we\u2019re going to legislate that they must.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shadow communications spokesperson, Sarah Henderson, warned on Sunday the duty of care laws could restrict free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt stake is something generations of Australians have fought and died to defend,\u201d she told the Conservative Political Action Conference<\/a>. \u201cYour freedom of speech questions authority, to challenge government, to expose injustice and, above all, the freedom to disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Greens will push Labor to dramatically change new laws designed to rein in big tech, calling for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-924775","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\/924775","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=924775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}