{"id":841476,"date":"2025-04-16T21:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T02:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/tech-giants-object-as-youtube-set-to-dodge-australian-social-media-ban\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T21:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T02:13:17","slug":"tech-giants-object-as-youtube-set-to-dodge-australian-social-media-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/tech-giants-object-as-youtube-set-to-dodge-australian-social-media-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech giants object as YouTube set to dodge Australian social media ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Australia's<\/picture>
Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is ‘illogical’ and a ‘mockery’, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok say.
\nPhoto: Lionel BONAVENTURE \/ AFP\/File
Source: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is “illogical” and a “mockery”, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok<\/a> said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year unveiled landmark laws that will ban under-16s from social media by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

While popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram<\/a> face heavy fines for flouting the laws, Australia has proposed an exemption so children can use YouTube for school.<\/p>\n

TikTok’s Australian policy director Ella Woods-Joyce said YouTube had been handed a “sweetheart deal” that gave it an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

“Handing one major social media platform a sweetheart deal of this nature — while subjecting every other platform in Australia to stringent compliance obligations — would be illogical, anti-competitive, and shortsighted,” said Woods-Joyce.<\/p>\n

“The government’s arguments citing unique educative value do not survive even the most cursory of closer examinations,” she added in a submission to a government agency released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It would “further entrench Google’s market dominance”, she said, referring to YouTube’s parent company.<\/p>\n

Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — made similar arguments against the exemption.<\/p>\n

“This proposed blanket exception makes a mockery of the government’s stated intention, when passing the age ban law, to protect young people,” Meta said in its own submission to the communications department.<\/p>\n

“YouTube has the very features and harmful content that the government has cited as justifying the ban.”<\/p>\n

Both companies argued they produced video content that was virtually indistinguishable from YouTube’s.<\/p>\n

While a host of countries from France to China have mooted similar measures, Australia’s looming ban would be one of the strictest in the world.<\/p>\n

Firms face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$31.3 million) for failing to comply.<\/p>\n

Albanese has painted social media as “a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for scammers and, worst of all, a tool for online predators”.<\/p>\n

But officials are yet to solve basic questions surrounding the laws, such as how the ban will be policed.<\/p>\n

The ban is set to come into effect by December 2025.<\/p>\n

Source: AFP<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is ‘illogical’ and a ‘mockery’, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok say. Photo: Lionel BONAVENTURE \/ AFP\/FileSource: AFP Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is “illogical” and a “mockery”, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok said Wednesday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":841477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22153,23855,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-841476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-giants","8":"category-object","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}