New Tech Laws Catching Life-Saving Health and Harm Reduction Info in Crosshairs

A consortium that includes academics and representatives of sex workers and people who use drugs has launched a scathing critique of the Federal Government’s proposed digital safety laws, exposing serious risks to people’s safety and privacy and a failure to address concerns repeatedly raised by the group for more than a year.

The organisations, including Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League and academics from QUT, Curtin, and Deakin Universities have used a joint-statement to warn the government’s draft Digital Duty of Care (DDOC) Bill does nothing to stop the removal of legitimate life-saving content, vastly oversteps privacy protections, and treats small, government-funded community health NGOs as equivalent to Big Tech.

Ahead of two days of public hearings beginning today, a dossier of examples of the ongoing censorship of abortion, cancer, HIV, and time-sensitive drug alerts has been provided to the Senate Committee examining the laws as part of a last-ditch effort to stop the flawed Bill from proceeding in its current form.

A trove of correspondence dating back more than a year between the organisations, Minister Wells, and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also been provided to the Committee that reveals concerns about the ‘over capture’ of health information were repeatedly dismissed.

The coalition is calling for an independent appeals body, such as an ombudsman, to oversee cases where content is wrongly removed and for specialists involved in the sector to guide the implementation of the laws once they are finalised.

Pill Testing Australia Executive Officer Steph Tzanetis said without wholesale changes, the Bill will continue to allow tech algorithms to confuse evidence-based health promotion with harmful content.

“Community facing public health messaging such as drug checking alerts and sexual health resources are routinely deleted simply because social media companies’ algorithms fundamentally misunderstand the context of these posts.

“This Bill desperately needs to compel platforms to protect and amplify the evidence-based, harm-reduction information our communities rely on to stay safe.”

“As it stands, there are also gaping holes in the legislation’s ability to protect people from online hate and harassment, as well as the privacy and anonymity of those reaching out to health services for help – even by private direct message,” said Scarlet Alliance Policy and Advocacy Manager Dr Elena Jeffreys.

“We have shared our concerns about this Bill with the office of the eSafety Commissioner and Minister Wells to no avail and now confront legislation that promises to keep Australians safer while proliferating problems we have been highlighting for years. The implications of this are significant and reach deep into communities across the country.”