Australia: Consultation on the exposure draft of the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Act including content liability measures closes

On 21 January 2022, the consultation on the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2021 closed. The Australian Government previously issued an exposure draft of the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill on 1 December 2021 and opened the consultation on 17 December 2021. The Bill would classify social media services platforms as "publishers" of the material posted on their platform and potentially consider them liable for defamatory comments posted by third parties. On the contrary, owners and administrators of social media pages, will not be deemed publishers of said material. In particular, users will be able to apply to a court for a defamation proceeding against the social media service provider to obtain the disclosure of the defamatory commenter's relevant contact details or country location data. The provider has a defence in defamation proceedings if it has implemented a complaints scheme that respects the prescribed requirements (in particular, the need to answer any defamation complaint within 72 hours) and already treated the case by disclosing the commenter's information.