Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono welcomes the release of the Safer Online Services and Media Platforms report from Te Tari Taiwhenua, dealing with content regulation for media and social media.

“We welcome the move to an independent regulator that will be protected from political interference by the State or any political actors” says Anjum Rahman, Co-Lead of Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono. “However, as the proposal is for the regulator to regulate platforms rather than content, the content regulation is left to industry codes of practice.

“We have been advocating for the past two years to have proper involvement of impacted communities in the development of the Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms administered by NZ Tech. We continue to be of the opinion that this Code will not serve the needs of the communities who need it most.

“To have further codes of practice developed by industry, rather than civil society and communities, will lead to similar results. Any new regulatory structures must include a strong community voice embedded in the model, rather than at the discretion of industry actors.”

“We would also want to see a continuation of strong protections against discrimination and for balance and accuracy, which are in existing media codes.”

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