Australia’s strategy for better regulating United States technology giants will now see the country establishing a dedicated office – the first of its kind in the world, which would police Facebook Inc and Google. Analysts say that this effort could also become an example for the rest of the world concerned over the rising clout and market dominance of the large tech giants, mostly from the US.

This move by Australia would strengthen the regiualtion of the online platforms which has been a cause of concerns for governments from the United States to Europe as they struggle to find out ways to tackle a number of issues of these companies ranging from anti-trust issues to the proliferation of “fake news” and hate speech.

Regulators in various countries are taking issues such as breach of privacy very seriously which is reflected by the $5 billion fine slapped on Facebook in the United States earlier this month, said Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

“These companies are among the most powerful and valuable in the world,” Frydenberg told reporters in Sydney following the release of the much awaited report on future regulation of the dominant digital platforms. “They need to be held to account and their activities need to be more transparent,” Frydenberg said.

In order to closely examine the manner in which the companies used algorithms to match advertisements with viewers, a special branch of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would be formed in Canberra. This would create a better regulatory environment for the main source of income of media operators.

The ACCC has 23 recommendations in its report and the setting up of the new office was one of them. Other recommendations include strengthening of laws on privacy breach, protections for the news media and a code of conduct that would need approval from the regulators about how the companies can make use of users’ content to make money.

The aim of the Australian government was to “lift the veil” over the mostly secretive algorithms the online companies use to gather and monetize data of their users, Frydenberg said, and and accepted the ACCC’s “overriding conclusion that there is a need for reform”.

He added that a 12-week public consultation process for the proposals would be undertaken before they are implemented by the government.

While traditional media owners, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, have supported the reforms, the stricter regulations have been opposed by the likes of Google and Facebook.

The “strength of the language and the identification of the problems” was welcomed by News Corp’s local executive chairman, Michael Miller, who added that to ensure “real change”, the publisher would work with the government.

During the consultation process, they would engage with the government, Facebook and Google said. The companies however did not comment on any of the specific recommendations. The arguments in favor of a need for tighter regulation have been earlier rejected by the tech companies and have said that the level of competition for online advertising have been underestimated by the ACCC.

Currently five investigations on the two companies are being conducted by the regulator, said ACCC Chairman Rod Sims and added: “I believe more will follow”.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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