The legislation which covers broadcasting in Australia, the Broadcasting Services Act (1992), was framed at a time when pay TV was beginning and no one imagined how the internet would be harnessed to destroy the idea of truth. It has left the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), with no power over digital websites. ACMA is now playing catch-up by working with digital platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Apple and Amazon to halt the spread of disinformation online with a voluntary code of conduct. Yet it was a similar self-regulation approach which allowed misinformation and baseless conspiracy to flourish on subscription television in the first place.

Sky’s the limit as online influence soars and law plays catch-up