This is the Business Council’s submission in response to the exposure draft of the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2021 (“the Bill”). The Bill is focused on changes to defamation law, and follows the High Court decision in Fairfax Media Publications v Voller.

Businesses have been working through an existing and ongoing work of Attorneys-General across Australian jurisdictions on the Model Defamation Provisions, which is being led by New South Wales. Stage 2 of this process has specifically been considering the question of internet intermediary liability in defamation for the publication of third-party content.

While we support the government’s intention with this Bill (to provide recourse for Australians where defamatory material has been posted online) we do not consider the model as currently presented by government will have the impact that government intends for individual Australians.

You can read the submission here.