PIJI was pleased to have the opportunity to provide a response to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts’ draft Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.

In our response, we noted our support for the underlying principle of the Bill for greater transparency and accountability on
how all parties regulate mis- and disinformation on digital platforms. We also acknowledged the profound impact that the spread of online mis- and disinformation is having on society, and its potential to cause harm. PIJI welcomes efforts to measure and mitigate the problem through the proposed legislative framework and to this extent, broadly supports the focus of extended Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) powers on the processes and systems of digital platform services, rather than on assessment of individual content on digital platform services.

We also used our submission to reinforce the need for robust, news media industry standards that meet community expectations and accommodate changing technologies, for example a disclosure requirement on the use of generative AI in professional news content.

Our submission makes several recommendations, including:

• Provide more guidance on the applicable ‘contains’ false information standard within the definition of misinformation.
• Consider the removal of the distinction between misinformation and disinformation in the Bill but retain the concept of ‘intent’ in measures for harmful content and actors circulating harmful content.
• If separate definitions of mis – and disinformation are maintained, develop guidance on how user intent will be established and operationalised and release this guidance for further public consultation. Provide additional guidance around the instances where mis- and disinformation are covered differently under the new ACMA powers.
• Exclude social and political issues not related to protected attributes or democratic processes
  and institutions from the Bill.
• Provide further definition on key terms such as ‘group’, ‘social media’ and ‘publicly open conversation’.

Read our full submission, titled ‘New ACMA powers to combat mis- and disinformation’, here.

Find updates on the Review, and read other public submissions, on the Department’s website.