CANBERRA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated social media's social responsibility on Wednesday following Meta's announcement to abandon its fact-checking program.
"Social media has a social responsibility," Albanese told a press conference held in Mount Isa of the country's northeastern state of Queensland, when responding to Meta's decision not to do fact-checking.
Referring to the criticism that social media will make about Australia's decision and legislation to ban social media for those under 16, Albanese said that is "one that we don't resile from."
"We will stand up for Australia's national interest," he said. The prime minister attributed the rise in mental health issues for young people to social media, adding "I say to social media they have a social responsibility and should fulfil it."
Under the world-first law, children and teenagers under 16 in Australia will be banned from using social media from the end of next year. Social media companies could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars (about 31.17 million U.S. dollars) for failing to take "reasonable steps" to keep children under 16 off their platforms.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said on Tuesday that it was scrapping its third-party fact-checking program because expert fact-checkers had their own biases and too much content ended up being fact-checked. ■
