Andrew Forrest urges next Australian Prime Minister to get tougher on tech giants

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has called upon the next Prime Minister to make sure US social media giants such as Meta are beholden to Australian laws as part of his crusade against bad behaviour in big tech. Mr Forrest is in the midst of a legal battle in the US claiming Facebook’s parent company failed to stop his name and image from being plastered across social media and used as clickbait in a series of scam cryptocurrency advertisements. His attempt to bring criminal charges against Meta in the lower Magistrates Court in 2022 was discontinued in April last year. But the civil case in California has continued. Now the mining entrepreneur is calling on whoever forms Federal Government following next month’s election to make sure social media giants are answerable to Australian laws. He declared in a statement on Monday that Australian sovereignty “should be the most important factor when considering how to regulate foreign tech platforms that millions of Australians access.” “Australia should be able to enforce our laws for all companies that do business in Australia, and Australian users should have access to our courts if they suffer from big tech’s behaviour,” he said. The issue was “not a political debate” but rather “something that all parties should agree on.” “Whoever forms government should act immediately to require digital platforms to operate through an Australian legal entity and be subject to Australian regulations and our legal system.” The cryptocurrency scams bearing Mr Forest’s image reportedly cost some Australian users hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr Forrest said it was “completely unacceptable” that innocent Australians had no way to seek compensation from Meta. “Australians should be in control of what happens in Australia — it’s as simple as that.”