Five lessons for the world from Australia’s battle with tech giants

Big technology companies, including Facebook, Google and Elon Musk’s X, have proven difficult for national governments to control. The Internet has been treated as a “Wild West” beyond government authority.  

This is changing. Over the last five years, Australia has been at the pointy end of tech regulation, and the world is watching.  

The Morrison Coalition Government legislated the news media bargaining code in 2021, requiring large, profitable tech companies to fund Australian journalism. Commercial arrangements with Google and Facebook provided hundreds of millions of dollars to employ hundreds of journalists. The code inspired reform efforts in Canada and New Zealand.  

The Coalition also established the world’s first government organisation dedicated to keeping people safe online: the eSafety Commission. eSafety enforces the takedown of extremist and abusive material and facilitates and enforces industry self-regulation. It coordinates with other countries on global online safety.  

The Albanese Labor Government’s social media ban for under 16-year-olds began late late year. There are serious concerns about the ban’s consequences for isolated young people, but its popularity cannot be denied; it has already inspired efforts in Malaysia, Europe, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and New Zealand.  

As bold, but unsuccessful, was proposed legislation requiring digital platforms to address misinformation. The Albanese Government pulled the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill in 2024, having failed to convince either the Opposition or the crossbench of the bill’s merits.  

While imperfect, these efforts are remarkable because it is so difficult to regulate digital platforms.  

For one thing, the Internet is vast. No regulator could review even a fraction of content published online. For another, it is trans-national. Money and information pass instantly across borders. Finally, the tech giants are monopolistic, powerful and in control of the information that Australians see online. They are formidable foes.  

These companies use their platforms to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about government regulation. Facing down the media bargaining code, Google published research grossly exaggerating its contribution to the Australian economy – until the Australia Institute corrected the record. Elon Musk called the Misinformation Bill “fascist”. The eSafety Commissioner attributes death threats and the “doxxing” of her children to Musk’s “dog whistle”.  

Facebook uses malicious compliance when threatened with regulation. When the Australian Government pursued the media bargaining code, Facebook took down not just news, but government information indiscriminately. For a week during disaster season and the COVID pandemic, an Australian might have gone to the Facebook page of a local fire service or Department of Health and found it blank. Facebook backed down, though not before extracting concessions. 

Finally, the platforms sometimes refuse to comply. Last year, Facebook failed to renew its funding contracts with news media, costing Australian journalism tens of millions of dollars of funding.  

But Australia also shows how governments can out-manoeuvre the tech industry.  

First, governments should draw on popular support. The public is hungry for tech regulation, as proven by the strong support for the social media age ban despite its evident risks. Arrogant tech companies often alienate the public by overstepping, as with Elon Musk calling the Albanese Government “fascistic” or Facebook blocking emergency services.    

Second, governments should follow through on enforcement. Facebook thumbed its nose at the media bargaining code. The Albanese Government has escalated with a levy on tech revenues. The proposal comes a year after Facebook refused to pay for news, and will hopefully be legislated early in 2026.  

Third, governments should think globally but act locally. An impediment to earlier digital regulation was that governments felt a global problem like online safety needed multinational action. Negotiations often went nowhere. Now, online safety regulators are more sophisticated: acting first within their own countries, then coordinating with other countries’ regulators to get harmful content removed widely.  

Fourth, governments must earn trust. People are rightfully sceptical of government control of information. The Albanese Government this year tried to weaken Australia’s freedom of information laws, using a supposed threat to the eSafety Commission as its justification. They could not prove their claims, and left eSafety looking weak and overly sensitive. Labor burned goodwill that might have helped towards other regulation.  

Fifth, governments must convince the public. On the media bargaining code, the Liberal–National Coalition was assisted by the might of Australian media and by diverse allies, including the Australia Institute. By contrast, Labor stayed mostly quiet on the Misinformation Bill while myths spread online and crucial votes on the crossbench turned away one by one.  

Both Labor and Liberal–National governments have proven willing to take on big tech. Australia’s experience matters. Its efforts inspire the world. Other countries can learn from the tactics used by the tech industry to oppose Australian regulations, and from the strategies that have helped overcome industry resistance.