Jewish and Muslim groups urge right to sue US tech giants over race- or religion-based online hate as Labor weighs Greens' demands

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Islamic Council of Victoria are among more than 80 groups mobilised by the left-wing Australia Institute. The Greens, whose support Labor needs to pass the bill, want tougher rules including a private right of action, larger fines based on global revenue, and measures to discourage doomscrolling.

The Digital Duty of Care Bill would require tech platforms to ensure they do not amplify content that encourages attacks on race, religion, sexuality or gender. Unlike hate speech prohibitions, it would not outlaw individual posts but oblige companies to address amplification of harmful content. Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government would keep working through the request for a private right of action. “Through our consultation process, we heard from digital rights groups, consumer rights groups, women's groups and advocacy groups like Teach Us Consent seeking a private right of action,” Wells said. “We'll keep working that through in good faith.”

Lawyer Josh Bornstein, now director of corporate regulation at the Australia Institute, said the bill in its current form only explicitly referenced harm based on gendered violence. "It needs to address other forms of hate speech including racist and homophobic hate speech," he said. "As the royal commission into antisemitism made clear, the most extreme forms of hate speech are propagated by social media giants because they profit from doing so. That has got to stop."

Google, which is due to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry on Monday, warned against any speedy changes. In its submission, it said the bill was modelled on the Work Health and Safety Act, which "expressly precludes a private right of action". Google said compliance should be evaluated by a dedicated safety regulator, and that it would be "inappropriate to retrofit such a proposal absent further reforms to the duty of care". It argued that Australians could already sue under existing law, and that any new avenue should include a higher threshold of "serious harm" to avoid overwhelming courts.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young aimed to pre-empt free speech objections, saying the rules were “not about individual users at all or stopping people posting certain things”. The bill also gives users the choice to opt into algorithmic recommendations.

Labor's education minister Jason Clare said the politics on digital regulation had shifted dramatically, noting the Coalition had taken a hard line on the duty and that former treasurer Josh Frydenberg had supported the concept in his submission to the antisemitism royal commission. “Peter Dutton would be saying we're not going hard enough, but because of the sort of atomisation of politics and the rise of One Nation, the Libs feel like they're subject to some sort of hostile takeover by Pauline Hanson,” Clare told News24's Sunday Agenda.