News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller has taken aim at Meta, TikTok and X in a searing speech, calling on the Federal Government to force the foreign tech monopolies to play by “Australian rules” through the legislation of a ‘Social License’.

In an address to the National Press Club today, Miller pitched that Social License as a “package of laws and requirements” tech giants must abide by if they “want access to Australian consumers”.  

“On behalf of 27 million Australians, the Australian Government has the mandate and ability to re-establish and reassert itself as the representative and rule maker of Australia - by resetting the rules for global platforms’ access to Australians,” he said.

In effect, Miller's Social License proposition would require the likes of Meta, TikTok and X to meet the same corporate standards that apply to every major Australian company. It would make the platforms “liable for all content that is amplified, curated and controlled by their algorithms or recommender engines”, diverging from the precedent set in the United States under Section 230 – which is currently being debated by US lawmakers.

Platforms, he proposed, would also be required to have call centres that handle consumer complaints, contribute to public spending on mental health, and compensate publishers and media companies under the Media Bargaining Code. Miller additionally cited the role of the “ex ante” competition framework outlined by the ACCC in addressing the “problem of monopolies digital advertising markets”.

Part of the agreement would see penalties incorporating criminal sanctions for companies and their executives who break agreed upon rules under the license, and ultimately exile companies that “refuse to play by our rules”.

In his speech Miller covered off the long list of criticisms pitted against the platforms, citing Cyber Security Minister Clare O'Neil's assertion that "just about every problem that we have as a country is either being exacerbated or caused by social media, and we’re not seeing a skerrick of responsibility taken by these companies.”

Miller said the unwillingness of the tech cohort to do anything about these issues is because their "bad behaviour is good for business". 

"The social media giants profit from evil videos. They profit from bullying. They profit from online con artists. They profit from glamourising eating disorders."

While its the content that is causing harm, he said the true damage is done by the businesses that distribute it - "the content and the conduct are partners in crime". 

"Let’s pause here and go back in time again to those early wonder years of the internet, and imagine we had a crystal ball," said Miller. "If we could have looked into the future, and seen a world where a handful of mega companies had privatised the internet: Created multi-billion dollar advertising monopolies, and exposed billions of people to harmful content, while thumbing their noses at nations around the world – would we have been okay with that?"

The hardening of the media juggernaut’s rhetoric against the tech contingent has been a long time coming. Miller and many of his peers have been outspoken about the failure of big tech players to fairly engage with Australian publishers through the Media Bargaining Code. The issue made its way to the top of the agenda for Australia’s major media players when Meta indicated earlier this year that it would not renew the circa $70 million worth of deals it had with Australian media businesses, opting to kill its news offering rather than pay publishers for their content.

“I fear that what replaces that news in Australia will be unverified, untrusted and no doubt unchecked,” Miller said of that move on an Mi3 podcast in March. “Not just fake, but misleading news, which will lead Australians to make poor decisions, and ultimately will make what is one of the world's oldest and strongest democracies weaker.”

Miller today reiterated his firm belief that Meta has an obligation to renew those agreements, and honour the code. "It’s intriguing that Meta has no problem turning off the news, but has a big problem turning off teenage fight clubs, the bullying of young women or scam advertising," he said.

News Corp's latest appeal adds to a chorus of voices that have called on greater government action against Big Tech. Minister for Communications Michelle Rowlands last month unveiled the reference terms for a 'Joint Parliamentary Select Committee into the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society’. The committee, which is likely to overlap with the ACCC's ongoing Digital Platform Services Inquiry, will be tasked with investigating the impacts of algorithms, the proliferation of scams, child abuse and “violent extremist material” on the platforms, as well as mis and disinformation, and Meta's abandonment of the Media Bargaining Code.

Meanwhile, several campaigns lobby the government raise the legal age at which young people can access social media have gained significant momentum in recent weeks. Nova Sydney Breakfast presenter Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and Finch founder Rob Galluzzo are the latest to put the fight to the social media giants in their campaign '36 Months' – they say delaying social media access for teenagers until they turn 16 would protect young people from social media's harms during the most critical phase of psychological development. 

News Corp Australia conducted research into Australian's attitudes and experiences of social media in April, highlighting the vulnerabilities of teenagers to the harms posed by the platforms. 

In a nationally representative survey of more than 3000 Australians aged 16 and older, News Corp found that 71 per cent of Australians have a first or second hand experience of a negative issue on social media. The impacts were exacerbated for those aged 16 to 19 years, with 67 per cent spending more than 3 hours on social media per day, versus only 27 per cent of those aged 20 and older. Teenagers also over-indexed in experiences of revenge porn (12 per cent), sexual harassment (32 per cent) and exposure to traumatic content (38 per cent). 

The harms posed by the platforms have left one in three Australians with negative sentiments towards social media, and 63 per cent of parents with concerns over the threat of cyberbullying online. The vast majority believe that social media giants should be held responsible for their impacts - 83 per cent want them to be subject to Australian regulations, 79 per cent agree that the owners of the platforms have too much power and 54 per cent would support a ban on a social media company's Australian operations if it refused to comply with regulations.