The Trump administration has warned the Australian government that its plans to boost online safety through digital duty of care laws risks becoming a mechanism for “viewpoint-based censorship” and called for American platforms to be exempted.
Restating strong opposition to measures the White House considers “extraterritorial censorship of protected speech by Americans online”, the US has used a submission to the Albanese government’s public consultation process to express serious concerns about Australia’s communications minister having legal powers to declare “foreseeable harm”.
The intervention – delivered ahead of Anthony Albanese seeing US President Donald Trump at the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, New York time – will embolden the Coalition, which opposes the duty of care laws on the grounds they would hand too much power to the government to regulate online content.
A submission published on the website of the US embassy in Canberra on Tuesday says that the proposed model of protection for users under 18 would unfairly effect users in the US.
“A framework that empowers governments to enforce vague definitions of ‘harm’ risks becoming a mechanism for viewpoint-based censorship, as platforms will be incentivised to over-moderate speech that should be protected to avoid regulatory penalties,” it says.
“If Australia compels platforms to aggressively filter content in algorithmic feeds to satisfy a government mandate, and such filtering draws in protected speech, the effect on a disfavored speaker or media source’s reach would not be meaningfully different than outright removal.
“The US government would likely consider such a measure as facilitating censorship.”
The White House had previously warned about measures that could impose unfair new restrictions on American companies, but the submission represents a public escalation of the Trump administration’s opposition.
It comes days after Trump’s new envoy to Australia, the former congressman David Brat, arrived in Australia to take up his post in Canberra.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced plans to introduce a digital duty of care for internet users under 18, requiring popular platforms, online games, apps and AI chatbots to protect children from specific harms.
They will include pornography; content that promotes, encourages or accelerates eating disorders; misogynistic content; content that glorifies crime or life-endangering stunts; and content that causes serious mental health distress, including abuse and bullying.
The regulator, the eSafety commissioner, will have the power to issue removal notices to social media companies, with platform operators required to document measures taken to address online harms.
Designated harms could be disallowed by Pparliament under the plan.
The announcement coincided with plans by the Albanese government to require platforms to allow account holders to opt out of the powerful algorithms pushing content into their feed.
The US requested Australia withdraw any plans to mandate platforms algorithmically suppress content “based on ambiguous government-defined safety criteria.”
It said legally required design features, especially when applied to algorithms, could affect what users see, say, and hear around the world.
“Platforms generally build and deploy product features at a global scale rather than market-by-market; forced platform design changes to mitigate Australia-specific risks could result in systemic changes that affect how users everywhere, including Americans, experience these platforms and reach audiences.”
The communications minister, Anika Wells, has called the new laws “a global reckoning” for big tech, following the government’s introduction of a social media ban for under 16s.
Asked about possible intervention from the US, Albanese said on 8 September the government would make decisions in Australia’s national interest.
