SOCIAL MEDIA – AUSTRALIA

It’s official: Social media is ubiquitous among 14-15 year old Australians

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 3-Dec-25

New data from Roy Morgan shows that 624,000 Australian children aged 14 and 15 use at least one social media platform in an average four weeks. The research shows exceptionally high reach across the major platforms, with YouTube (95%), Snapchat (87%), Facebook (81%) and Instagram (78%) the most widely used among the 14-15 age group. Significant proportions also use Reddit (70%), TikTok (59%) and X/Twitter (41%), while Twitch (12%) and Threads (9%) remain more niche platforms. The findings come at a pivotal moment, as legislation which comes into force on 10 December aims to ban or significantly restrict social media access for children under the age of 16. With almost all (99.96%) 14-15-year-olds using at least one platform, the potential impact on young Australians, parents, educators and digital providers will be substantial.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, YOUTUBE INCORPORATED, SNAPCHAT INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM LLC, REDDIT, TIKTOK, X CORPORATION, TWITCH, THREADS

Australians who get most of their news from social media more likely to believe in climate conspiracy, study finds

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Original article by Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 29-Jan-25

Research undertaken by Monash University has found that people who use social media as their main source of news score lower on a measure of ‘civic values’ than those who rely on newspapers and non-commercial media for news and current affairs. The researchers also found that 25 per cent of respondents who primarily use social media for news content believe that climate change is a conspiracy. This compares with 37 per cent of those who use commercial TV and radio as their main source of news. In contrast, just six per cent of people who largely source their news content from public TV networks the ABC and SBS consider climate change to be a conspiracy.

CORPORATES
MONASH UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS)

Exploitation of children and young people strong contributor to toxic levels of distrust in social media

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 3-Oct-24

As the Federal government prepares to introduce legislation that would ban social media for young Australians, analysis of six years of data from the Roy Morgan Risk Monitor shows that Australians have long distrusted social media companies, and their perceived exploitation of children is a major reason. Key themes underlying Australia’s mistrust of social media include the lack of regulation, the negative effect on self-esteem, targeting of content towards children, and the addictive nature of the platforms. The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor contains hundreds of thousands of verbatim comments from more than 130,000 Australians about why they trust or distrust brands they nominate top-of-mind. A snap poll conducted by Roy Morgan in July 2022 showed that less than three in 10 (29%) Australians agreed that ‘social media solves more problems than it creates’. These results were in contrast to public opinion on the internet in general, which showed that almost two thirds (64%) of Australians agreed that ‘the internet solves more problems than it creates’.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Google fails to sign on to scams fight

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 17 : 14-Jun-24

Meta has signed up to an intelligence-sharing agreement aimed at combatting financial scams and fraud via the sharing of information between social media platforms and market participants. However, Google is yet to sign up to the agreement, nor have X or TikTok, and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones has called them to do so. He says that if social media platforms want to operate in Australia that they must be part of the "team" when it comes to combatting scams, although Google claims it was not approached to join the intelligence-sharing agreement.

CORPORATES
META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, GOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, X CORPORATION, TIKTOK, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

University of Melbourne pro-Palestine protesters endorse Israel should not exist social media post

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Original article by Suzan Delibasic
Herald Sun – Page: Online : 28-May-24

The University of Melbourne’s chancellor Jane Hansen has received a formal complaint about an Instagram post that was re-shared by pro-Palestine activists who occupied a campus building for more than a week. Palestinian-American blogger Mariam Barghouti was responsible for the original post, which stated that "Israel cannot, will not, and should not exist". This post was subsequently re-shared by the UniMelb for Palestine Instagram page. A member of the Jewish community wrote to Hansen expressing concern about the post and urging her to take immediate action, stating that the post effectively calls for the wholesale murder of nine million people in Israel.

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Get tough with Meta: ex-insider

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Original article by Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 19-Mar-24

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says the federal government should engage directly with Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding its decision to abandon revenue-sharing deals with local news publishers. Haugen says Zuckerberg controls the social media giant, and his opinion is the only one that matters. She adds that Meta could and should pay for news content, and she argues that Australia needs to play hardball with Meta, given that the nation led the way globally with its news media bargaining code. Haugen will address the Australian Cybersecurity Conference in Canberra next week.

CORPORATES
META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK

Frydenberg urges Labor to negotiate with Zuckerberg over media deal

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Original article by Jessica Yun
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 13-Mar-24

Goldman Sachs Australia chairman and former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has weighed into the debate over Meta Platform’s decision to not renew content deals with news publishers. He says public interest journalism faces a "billion-dollar black hole" as a result of Meta’s decision. Frydenberg adds that the federal government needs to talk with the leaders of companies such as Meta. Frydenberg notes that he held direct negotiations with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google Sundar Pichai when the initial deals via the news media bargaining code were secured in 2021.

CORPORATES
GOLDMAN SACHS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED

Job losses and potentially dire impact on regional media from Meta’s news exit

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Age – Page: Online : 8-Mar-24

Australian Community Media executive chair Antony Catalano contends the decision by Meta to refuse to pay for Australian news content could have a "dire impact" on what is Australia’s largest regional newspaper publisher. Catalano said there would certainly be job losses at ACM if an alternative source of funds cannot be found, while he says he always felt as if Meta was not committed to the media content funding deals. Public Interest Journalism Initiative CEO Anna Draffin has suggested that tax reform could help make up the revenue gap resulting from Meta’s decision, suggesting it could take the form of a research and development-style rebate.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY MEDIA PTY LTD, META AUSTRALIA LIMITED, PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM INITIATIVE

Meta fixer flew in for half-hour delivery

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Original article by Ronald Mizen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 5-Mar-24

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones was informed by Meta’s vice president of public policy for Asia Pacific Simon Milner that the social media firm would no longer pay Australian publishers for their content 24 hours before its decision was made public. Milner is a typical example of the policy and government relations professionals that the tech firms employ to deal with irate politicians and inform them of the ‘company line from Silicon Valley’ at a time when their activities are coming under growing global scrutiny, with their work backed up by local lobbyists.

CORPORATES
META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

‘Dangerous and Orwellian’: Tech giants, lawyers warn on Labor bill

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Original article by Rhian Deutrom, Sarah Ison
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 12-Jul-23

The federal government continues to attract scrutiny over proposed laws targeting online misinformation and disinformation. Josh Machin of Facebook’s parent Meta has told a parliamentary committee that the digital giant is concerned that the additional powers given to the Australian Communications & Media Authority could potentially be abused, or used in a way that inadvertently ‘chills’ free and legitimate political expression online. Liberal senator James Paterson contends that censorship is not the answer to addressing online misinformation. Paterson and some of his Coalition colleagues have previously expressed concern about the ‘Orwellian’ nature of the proposed misinformation laws.

CORPORATES
META PLATFORMS INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK, AUSTRALIAN COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA AUTHORITY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA