The government of Australia announced on Sunday that it has abandoned plans to penalise internet companies up to 5% of their worldwide revenue for their inability to stop the spread of false material online.
TakeAway Points:
- Australia’s government said it had dropped plans to fine internet platforms up to 5% of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation online.
- A breach of telecom companies that the United States said was linked to China has been reported to be the worst telecom hack in the nation’s history—by far.
- The report stated that the hackers compromised the networks of “multiple telecommunications companies” and stole U.S. customer call records and communications from “a limited number of individuals who are primarily involved in government or political activity.”
- However, Beijing has repeatedly denied claims by the U.S. government and others that it has used hackers to break into foreign computer systems.
Australia dumps fine payment plan
According to the report, the bill was part of a wide-ranging regulatory crackdown by Australia, where leaders have complained that foreign-domiciled tech platforms are overriding the country’s sovereignty and come ahead of a federal election due within a year.
“Based on public statements and engagements with Senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement.
Rowland said the bill would have “ushered in an unprecedented level of transparency, holding big tech to account for their systems and processes to prevent and minimise the spread of harmful misinformation and disinformation online”.
Some four-fifths of Australians wanted the spread of misinformation addressed, said the minister, whose centre-left Labor government has fallen behind the conservative opposition coalition in recent polling.
The Liberal-National coalition, as well as the Australian Greens and crossbench senators, all opposed the legislation, Sky News reported.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called the government bill a “half-baked option” in remarks televised on Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday.
Industry body DIGI, of which Meta is a member, previously said the proposed regime reinforced an existing anti-misinformation code.
The Worst Cyberattack In US Telecom History Is Suspected To Be Connected To China
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee told the Washington Post on Thursday that a hack of telecom companies that the United States claimed was connected to China was the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history—by far.”
“Worst telecom hack in our nation’s history – by far,” the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman told the Washington Post Thursday, referring to a hacked telecom company that the United States claimed was connected to China.
Earlier this month, U.S. authorities said China-linked hackers had intercepted surveillance data intended for American law enforcement agencies after breaking into an unspecified number of telecom companies.
The hackers compromised the networks of “multiple telecommunications companies” and stole U.S. customer call records and communications from “a limited number of individuals who are primarily involved in government or political activity,” according to a joint statement released by the FBI and the U.S. cyber watchdog agency CISA on Nov. 13.
Reactions and responses
Beijing has repeatedly denied claims by the U.S. government and others that it has used hackers to break into foreign computer systems.
“For quite some time, the US side has been floating all sorts of disinformation about threats of “Chinese hackers” to serve its own geopolitical purposes,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said in a statement sent on Friday. “China firmly opposes and combats all kinds of cyber attacks.”
There were also reports Chinese hackers targeted telephones belonging to then-presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance, along with other senior political figures, raising widespread concern over the security of U.S. telecommunications infrastructure.
“This is an ongoing effort by China to infiltrate telecom systems around the world, to exfiltrate huge amounts of data,” Mark Warner told the Washington Post.
The breach went further than the Biden administration has acknowledged, with hackers able to listen to telephone conversations and read text messages, Warner was cited as saying in a separate interview by the New York Times.
“The barn door is still wide open, or mostly open,” he told the publication.
