Labor to get tough on digital platforms

GOOGLE and Facebook face a major crackdown over the “anti-competitive effects” digital giants are having on Australia’s democracy under a future Labor government.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland has raised concerns about the “health of our democracy” and the “future of public interest journalism” in a major speech overnight outlining key priorities if Labor wins the federal election.

A soon-to-be-announced plan to improve the National Broadband Network and tougher government regulation for digital platforms like Facebook and Google were among the big ticket items.

Ms Rowland indicated consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, would either have to use its current powers to tackle “anti-competitive” behaviour of the digital giants or new regulation was needed.

“The media is in transition and, to the extent there are some anti-competitive effects of the size and scale of the digital platforms’ success, then that needs to be examined,” Ms Rowland said.

“Regulators need to understand this new environment, they need to apply the regulation they have and they need to adapt it, where necessary.”

Ms Rowland said governments had left digital platforms to grow because they were “so transformative” and “nobody wanted to be the person to stifle innovation”.

“Now there is a view that the digital platforms, once the disrupters, are now themselves so big, so vertically integrated, so, as some would argue, monopolistic in their behaviour, that they’re stifling innovation in some respects,” she said.