Safer Online Services - A Thematic Commentary Part 3

Continuing the thematic overview of the DIA Safer Online Services and Web Platforms

Introduction

This is the third part of my commentary on the Department of Internal Affairs Safer Online Services and Social Media Platforms Discussion Paper. I have examined a number of themes or discussion heads in Parts 1 and 2 of this series.

In this, the third part, enforcement models are considered and the discussion demonstrates the unsuitability and uncertainty surrounding a content control model that has Bill of Rights Act implications. The issue of a subjective approach, focusing on a “safe experience” is critiqued.

I discuss in detail social media issues. The main factor in this discussion lies in the problem of asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction over off-shore platforms. The discussion in the Document is less than superficial on this point and is totally unsatisfactory. Given that there are remedies surrounding take down orders and their enforceability, a far more rigorous analysis is required of this fundamental issue.

I go on to discuss other Bill of Rights Act issues and the supportive and prescriptive approaches that are recommended in the Document. Any content control model must adopt the least restrictive outcome to an interference with freedom of expression and clearly a supportive model is favoured.

Finally I am critical of the way in which it is suggested that the news media be folded in to these proposals and I argue that in fact the news media occupies a unique position in the information landscape irrespective of the mode of content delivery, despite some recent issues surrounding Radio New Zealand have arisen. I argue that the existing mechanisms for news media regulation remain in place.

Enforcement Models

The Discussion Document sets out in some detail what compliance will be expected of platforms and providers starting at page 22 and continuing through to page 63. It is the most substantial part of the Discussion document.

There are a number of problems that arise within that discussion. I raise a few of the more extreme examples.  Top cover all the issues raised under the proposals for the development of Codes and their Enforcement on effectively a line-by-line basis would make this commentary unwieldy. I have preferred therefore to address the extreme examples as I see than in a thematic manner.

They are as follows

1.   Control and Sanction of Individual Content Creators

2.   The Issue of “Experience”

3.   Social Media Platform Issues

4.   Extraterritoriality and Jurisdiction

5.   Intellectual Property Contradictions

6.   Ambiguities and Inconsistencies