The final speaker in this session at the AANZCA 2025 conference is Derek Wilding, with a reflection on the European Union’s Digital Services Act and its attempts to regulate disinformation. Through the DSA, the EU has moved from a regime of platform self-regulation to co-regulation: this might be understood as a form of enforceable self-regulation, since it does not depend solely on industry players.
It contrasts with the Australian environment, where self-regulation by the members of the DIGI industry association remains the current model after the co-regulation model of the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill failed to make it through the parliamentary process in 2024. This means that regulation in Australia remains very piecemeal: there is no overarching framework as there is with the DSA in the EU.
The DSA provides for different ways in which codes of practice may be developed; the existing voluntary codes of practice can be converted into DSA codes; industry might voluntarily develop codes under the DSA; and the European Commission can itself initiate code development in collaboration with stakeholders.
Interviews with various stakeholders in these EU processes show a variety of perspectives on this approach. They highlight the strong role played by the European Commission itself, which is a key player with its own agenda rather than merely a neutral facilitator, and has the implicit power to bring various stakeholders to the table. It plays the role of an active regulator, somewhat similar (but more powerful) to ACMA or the eSafety Commissioner in Australia.
The language of its Disinformation Code remains somewhat imprecise, however, while also setting overly complicated KPIs. The co-regulatory model has also brought more civil society participants back to the table, who had become disenchanted with the effectiveness of self-regulation and its implementation by platforms.
Further, to address disinformation is not the core or sole aim of the DSA, but it has become a particularly important flashpoint in DSA implementation, since it provides an acute driver for the forceful regulation of platforms.
This approach, then, might also translate to the Australian context: it is a useful systems-based approach to platform obligations, and has been effective in encouraging the development of codes of conduct. It also generates highly complex negotiation and implementation processes, and continues to build on industry terminology and logics, so some aspects of the EU code-making process could certainly be approved considerably more.
