The big tech companies need to be broken up or regulated to stop the spread of false information, according to one of the world's experts who researches "Big Tech" at the University of Canberra.
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"I'm sure we can make them more accountable," Sora Park, Professor of Communication at the university, said.
She was one of the authors of a new study that found 90 per cent of the Australians who were surveyed thought "governments should introduce laws to make sure social media platforms remove misinformation which could be harmful".
The researchers also found that two thirds of the Australians asked had either just come across information which they definitely thought was false or that they suspected was false.
The research concluded:
- Almost half of adult Australians reported that they had encountered false or misleading information online in the week before the survey - with the proportion being highest among those aged 18 to 29. On top of that, another 21 per cent suspected the information was false.
- More than two-thirds of those who regularly used six or more social media platforms had seen online misinformation in the past week.
Professor Park thought that teaching people how to spot false information would be a good step but conceded this would be a long-term measure. And she accepted that artificial intelligence was good and getting better at creating fakery.
"Australians want to know more about the rapidly changing media environment," she said.
"They want to be educated about how to protect themselves and their family from scams and misinformation. However, support is not always readily available. Targeted media literacy programs are needed especially for those who have lower levels of media literacy including regional, less educated, older and people living with a disability."
Professor Park also thought that the root of the problem was that the big platforms (X - formerly Twitter, Facebook, and the like) were big monopolies.
"They could break up the companies," she said. Government could also regulate the companies to compel them to remove misinformation.
She felt that government could also help trusted sources of news (like this masthead and public broadcasters).
The survey was a collaboration between Western Sydney University, University of Canberra and Queensland University of Technology. The researchers asked 4442 adult Australians from January to April 2024 about their media literacy abilities. The sample was big enough to give a representative picture of Australian views.
