The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has embarked on an investigation its Chair believes deals with one of the most important issues facing the international community today.
The ACCC is exploring the impact of digital platforms such as Facebook and Google and how they collect and manage personal and other private information.
Chair of ACCC, Rod Sims told the International Institute of Communications — Telecommunications and Media Forum in Sydney last week that the Commission was considering the disruptive effect of digital platforms on society, studying the experience gained from current investigations and developments overseas.
“It is clear that we need to look at the digital platforms through both a competition and a consumer lens,” Mr Sims said.
He said the investigation would explore four key questions.
“The first question requires us to examine whether platforms have substantial ‘market power’ and, if so, how is that market power being used.
“The second question addresses the impact on consumers, and whether digital platforms are sufficiently transparent in the collection and use of consumer data and are complying with the Australian Consumer Law.”
He said he did not believe consumers were generally well-informed about how digital platforms collected and used their data.
He said the third question was whether digital platforms had an unfair competitive advantage due to the unequal treatment of regulation.
“Finally, we are also looking at the impact of the digital platforms on the quality of news and journalism in this country,” Mr Sims said.
He said quality was extremely hard to assess.
“Broadly speaking, we will be investigating whether the reduction in advertising revenue prevents publishers and broadcasters from delivering quality journalism, by which we mean investigative, verified and diverse journalism,” he said.
Mr Sims said journalism was a highly valued profession, and crucial to people’s lives.
“Just like we are well advised not to rely on amateur doctors, perhaps we should not rely on amateur journalists,” he said.
Mr Sims’ full speech can be accessed at this PS News link.
