Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the power of big tech and the influence that big tech has on our lives. My teenage daughter is a digital native. She's got a smartphone, a laptop and social media. She streams what she wants to watch when she wants to watch it. She can search for the answers on almost every question ever asked. She speaks with friends from the other side of the world whom she's never met before, on a variety of different platforms. She shops, plays and learns online. But almost everything she does is traced, is under surveillance and is watched very carefully in order to influence the decisions that she will make next. The data of her footprint online is captured for corporate profit.

This influence of big tech companies needs to be taken on. I know it's radical to suggest that these big tech companies who are so powerful now need to be reined in, but it is exactly what we need to do, not just to protect the safety of our children online but to protect democracy itself. Tech giants aren't working in the public interest anymore. The internet isn't open and free, as perhaps it once was. It is now manipulated and controlled by a small handful of big corporations. They watch what we do, they follow what we do and then they sell what they think we're going to do next. The internet has become an essential part of our lives. We use it for shopping, health care, accessing information and keeping in touch with friends and family. But it is people who are the product of the big tech platforms, and, as users, we have no idea just what information they have on us. We need better regulation, we need openness and transparency, and we need a genuine conversation about creating an open, transparent and public space for what is online.

Corporations should never have been allowed to become this powerful. We're in the middle of a debate here in Australia right now about the influence of two big companies, Google and Facebook, because there is a suggestion that one part of what they do might be regulated because of the huge market share they have. Instead of participating in that conversation in a genuine, balanced way, those two big corporations, Google and Facebook, have said they'll pull the plug. They'll withdraw their services. How did it get to a point where corporations this big, who have so much influence and control over our lives, can just say that they'll take their bat and ball and go home? If we needed an example of why we need proper and better regulation in the tech space online and of these big tech giants, this is it. We need scrutiny of the algorithms that run these services, and we need more rights for users concerning what data is gathered and how it is used. We need regulation of hate speech and misinformation. We need proper taxation of companies that are making billions and billions of dollars from the users who are simply accessing this service as an essential part of their daily lives, while these companies are collecting this data and selling it to advertisers.

Platforms would have you believe that they're simply an independent third party. They're the road that you take to get from A to B. But, of course, everything along that road is collected, is sold, and you don't even know which parts of your journey are being traced and who that information is going to. It is your data and it should be your choice. It should be up to the Australian people, the individual users, to decide what is traced, what is sold, who should profit from it and for what purpose.

It is time that we actually had a genuine, open conversation about how big and powerful these companies have got. Technology is an important element of how we have developed and how we are going to deal with the challenges of the future, particularly in a time of global change, dealing with climate change and environmental destruction and trying to bring the world together rather than divide it. But, if we're to do that, democracies need to be protected and technology needs to be set amongst rules that are fit for the community and not just for corporations. We need oversight of social media and mechanisms in place to ensure that they are responsible for the information that is promoted and used. It is unthinkable that, in the time of a global pandemic, we have some companies making money off the promotion of misinformation that could put people's health at risk. It is unthinkable that some people in positions of power and responsibility can post misinformation about health advice and not have to be held accountable for it. We need to prevent the spread of misinformation and hate speech online. Facebook has become a platform where people get more likes, more friends and more shares the more outrageous they are, the more hateful they are. Is that good for the rest of democracy? Is that good for social cohesion? Is that good for community? What rules and practices do we need to put in place to make sure that these spaces that have become quasi-public—the new town square—are regulated in the same way they would be if they were offline? These conversations are happening not just here in Australia but around the world, but the big underlying element of all of this is what we do as users, how that information is collected, who owns it and where it goes.

Big tech companies have been able to make huge profits and become incredibly powerful. It's time to regulate them in the public interest so that everyday people can take back control over the decisions they make, where their information goes and who they share it with. There are a lot of impressive people working in this space. It's time for us as politicians, as thought leaders, as government members, to not be afraid of these big companies, not be afraid of taking on these monopolies, but instead look at what the solutions are. It may be that some of these companies are way too big and need to be broken up. They have such a monopoly that they are distorting the market. It may be that government needs to invest in genuine services for the public good: social media platforms that are run independently and for the public, for the community; search engines that are there to give people information, not to sell data to advertisers. But whatever the solution is, it must involve proper rules and regulations that are fit for the world that we live in today and fit for ensuring that the online space is safe, open, transparent and accessible to all people. If it's good enough in the local park, it should be good enough online. If it's good enough for the town square to have rules and social norms, then it shouldn't be so hard to expect corporations and businesses to behave appropriately and to be honest and open with the community online too.