The Digital Industry Group has released the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation (Code) to prevent the spread of false information on social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter.
After a five-year battle, Britain’s Supreme Court has held that Uber drivers will no longer be regarded as self-employed but workers under the company Uber.
Following the House of Representative’s successful passing of the News Media Bargaining Code, Facebook has banned Australian publishers and users from sharing and viewing local news articles on its platform.
Elon Musk has taken the financial world by storm by investing $1.5B US dollars of Tesla in the crypto king Bitcoin.
Following a recent audit into the compliance of Australian law enforcement agencies, it was discovered that Australian police were unlawfully provided with metadata and web browser histories of people under investigation.
In early 2020, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) commenced its Digital Advertising Services Inquiry into the “supply of digital advertising technology services and digital advertising agency services.” This report was recently finalised and detailed the absence of competition, choice, and transparency in the digital ad industry, posing serious impacts on publishers, advertisers, and consumers.
Australian software tech company, Atlassian, has recently released 8 guiding principles for sound tech policy.
In late October, Spain finalised its Tax on Certain Digital Services to tax online businesses where previous physical tax rules were inappropriate. This law is designed to update tax law with modern business models and targets online advertising services, online intermediation services and data transmission services, applying an indirect 3% levy for the provision of any digital services by an online business in Spain. To put this into perspective, this tax alone will generate approximately 1 billion euros which are intended to be funnelled back into Spain’s COVID-19 relief and support.
With this unilateral tax measuring coming into force on 16 January 2021, present companies have already shown some resistance. Notably, Amazon has indicated that it is going to raise its fees by 3% to offset the levy and apply this to all Spanish companies using its platform. Similar taxing has sprung up around Europe as well as Australia and it is apparent that giants like Amazon are willing to increase their fees to negate the impact of tax laws on the operation of their business.
Consequently, this highlights the need to implement an appropriate taxing system that does not hinder the impact of these dominating tech companies in the economy. More importantly, without a unified international system, companies and countries may claim privilege or discrimination. For example, following Spain’s digital tax, the Office of the United States Trade Representative argued tax discrimination against American companies, restriction of international trade, and even breach of international tax principles, providing similar comments to those made against Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code. Ultimately, without broader consensus it will be difficult to manage taxing digital platforms, especially as they have operated for so long under low levels of taxation and regulation.
For the full reading of the tax law see here.
Following Facebook’s alleged privacy breach early last year, the digital giant came out to say that it does not conduct business in Australia.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner accused Facebook of breaching the privacy of thousands of Australian users in 2014-2015. The dubbed “Cambridge Analytica scandal” shed light on the workings of Facebook by exposing its mass data harvesting techniques and on-selling targets to advertisers. It was discovered that “only 53 people in Australia downloaded the app, according to court documents, but [Facebook] was able to harvest the data of 311,127 Australians in total.” As such, it came as no surprise that Justice Thawley deemed Facebook as not only operating in Australia but also collecting sensitive information about users through catching servers and cookies.
However, Facebook stands adamant that the current Australian privacy laws present a grey area when digital platforms operate in Australia. More importantly, it showcases a complex question on whether digital platforms ‘hold’ or ‘collect’ personal information. Facebook is seeking to appeal Justice Thawley’s decision on the basis that it would create ‘substantial injustice’ for the company. It is worth noting that Facebook has stood up at this critical time amidst Google’s battle with Australian regulators. It appears that dominating tech companies are beginning to rise collectively to cement their position in the international economy and society.
The future of this decision may widen the jurisdiction of Australian courts when dealing with international tech platforms and potentially strengthen digital law regulation in Australia.
For Justice Thawley’s decision see here.
For further reading see here.
Despite the Australian Government applying pressure onto Google over local news media, a coalition of American government and business organisations have claimed that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code may violate the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.
COVID-19 brought a myriad of issues, but Malaysia’s workforce felt these impacts incredibly hard due to pay cuts, delayed salaries, and wrongful termination. As such, Malaysian workers are constantly engaged in various legal disputes with employers without proper professional assistance, and to most, hiring private legal counsel is too expensive. In an attempt to aid employees (as well as employers), the innovative Shang & Co developed “Malaysia’s first artificial legal assistant” – AskAILA.
Just before the end of 2020, the Australian Government introduced the hotly anticipated Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020 to regulate controlled access to Australian Government data.
Legal technology apps are projected to rapidly elevate the legal profession in the not-so-distant future. Over the next seven years, these apps will transform the way law firms deal with “practice management, documentation storage, billing, accounting and electronic discovery.” Even today many firms already utilise legal software to maximise efficiency, namely in the form of electronic discovery, client filing and administration.
Faceless terrorists consistently frequent platforms such as Facebook to proliferate online abuse. Consequently, the Australian Government has proposed a new law to crack down on internet service providers and social media platforms to actively remove harmful content online.
Despite the final draft of the Australian Government’s News Media Bargaining Code being watered down, Google still holds a firm stance that the advocated law will be unworkable.
Following the proliferation of tech empires and major digital platforms, the European Union aims to take the lead in regulating digital markets going into 2021.
With an unpredictable 2020 coming to a close, it is necessary to take a look at how COVID-19 is predicted to transform legal and regulatory reform going into 2021 and the future.
Australia and Singapore have entered into a Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) which is said to set ‘new global benchmarks for trade rules, and a range of practical cooperation initiatives, to reduce barriers to digital trade’ and proliferate the digital economy.
The Financial Rights Legal Centre, Consumer Action Law Centre, and Financial Counselling Australia have banded together to challenge current privacy laws in Australia.
In light of digital disruption due to COVID-19, the Australian Government has made a push to reform and modernise television regulation in Australia.