A rumored lawsuit would determine who’s responsible for the failure of Australia’s social media ban

Last December, when the Australian government began enforcing sweeping restrictions on youth social media use, the whole world took notice — and we all watched Australia’s regulators fall flat on their faces.

To put it bluntly, the plan to keep Aussie under-16s off of social media has been an abject failure. Teens aren’t staying away from their favorite platforms. In fact, according to some studies, Australian youths are more active on social media than they were before the ban took effect.

The Australian government is looking for someone to blame for the ineffective rollout, and it is pointing its proverbial finger at the platforms it restricted. According to a report from Bloomberg, the antipodean tech regulator known as the eSafety Commissioner is preparing a lawsuit that would target five platforms included in the ban: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.

The lawsuit hasn’t been filed yet, but Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said that we can “expect” eSafety head Julie Inman Grant to file charges against the beleaguered platforms. “Now she has more powers to be able to gather the evidence that she needs to take those five companies to the Federal Court,” Wells said. “She’s now using those powers to prepare her case.”

The companies targeted by Australia’s youth social media ban have protested the measure, but they have also repeatedly claimed to adhere to the law. Meta, for example, reported earlier this year that it had taken action against more than 750,000 accounts

that were believed to be used by underage Australians.

Australian authorities are now contesting Big Tech’s account of the situation. “The law is not failing — platforms are failing to comply with the law,” Wells said earlier this month.

If the proposed lawsuit moves forward, it would give Australian courts a chance to set a precedent that could impact other countries. Youth access bans have come to some of the most social media-loving countries in the world, including Spain and Indonesia. Teens in those countries have responded by using VPNs and dummy accounts to evade regulations. In the process, they’ve showed that the initial social media bans don’t necessarily go far enough to be effective. With more severe crackdowns on the horizon, a legal showdown is probably inevitable, whether it comes in Australia or elsewhere.

The platforms that would be targeted by the rumored eSafety lawsuit haven’t yet offered comments on the situation. In the court of public opinion, however, the prevailing attitudes are clear. Tech advocates are supporting Australian minors and their right to use VPNs. If officials in Canberra want to bring the social media fight to court, they could risk squandering the tenuous support their ban has thus far received.