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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28114 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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"You do this thing we want you to do 'voluntarily' or we'll do it for you" is the most transparent of fig leaves. That it's regulation by threat rather than code doesn't make it less de facto required.

I mean, I wouldn't even call it a fig leaf. There's no pretense the government isn't driving this. They had an announcement and everything.

But it remains the fact that there is no law being proposed and this remains an important distinction! The government is saying "hey we think this is a problem, come up with some ways to address it". So yes, it is compelling action. But it is allowing the apps to decide themselves on the specific action, it is not imposing penalties for breaches, and it is not putting legislation in place that will endure beyond the term of the current Minister. This is the lightest of light touches.

I agree with you that this is currently not actually a law, but I think you are being slightly dishonest when you claim that "No one is considering a law!" - this is the sort of action which frequently precedes legislation on the topic, as the problems the code is meant to address remain unaddressed. I find it hard to believe that even the most ardent supporter of a code like this actually believes that it will do anything at all to fix the problem of men continuing to propose alternatives when their first data idea gets shot down.

this is the sort of action which frequently precedes legislation on the topic

No, it isn't. I challenge you to provide me with even one example.

The New Media bargaining code is what I was thinking of specifically.

How is that similar? In that case the government tasked the ACCC with developing a mandatory code. They didn't ask Facebook and Google to develop a voluntary one.

The first draft of the code was actually voluntary rather than mandatory, and they did ask Facebook and Google for input on it. That's what made me think of this case in particular - it started out as a voluntary code with suggestions from the various parties, in a fairly similar way to this one.

Okay, so I need to concede this point. I hadn't noticed the early parts of that dispute, and only started paying attention after it got to the mandatory code stage.

However, this article suggests that a key point in the progression of the issue was

That lead to the Government calling on the big tech platforms to negotiate with local media businesses, voluntarily, on a “fair and reasonable” payment model for the use of news content on their platforms. Facebook and Google both opted not to participate in this process, arguing that they gleaned little to no benefit from such content - and in fact, they actually drove benefit for news organizations by hosting links to their material.

In other words, they said "go sort this issue out yourselves" and Facebook and Google said "no". I have no actual recollection of these events myself so I'll assume the article is representing them accurately, but correct me again if that's not the case.

Now, granted, this itself is enough to refute my strong position - I contended that industry would much prefer to self regulate rather than have the heavy hand of government come in. Obviously in this case that wasn't true and they tried to call the bluff, and the government did in fact bring in mandatory regulation.

So I think we can agree that the "or else" here is real - if the dating apps don't self regulate the government will regulate them. And I concede I was too confident that the government would not need to make good on that threat.

I am happy that we have amicably resolved a dispute without recourse to name-calling or heat generation! But yes, I don't see anything disagreeable in your post. I was paying a lot of attention to the code as it happened due to being extremely online, and I agree with this article's contention that Facebook et al were in the right here. I saw the code as the government doing their best to please the Murdoch media, like when they (allegedly) sabotaged the national broadband network because that could potentially impact Murdoch's business.

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