Ms Anna Morgan:

The core point we have made in our written submission is a concern that a regulatory lacuna will arise in circumstances where the current definition of harmful online content set out in head 49A specifically excludes material which is said to violate, among other things, data protection law.

The concern that arises for us on that front is that there may be a dilution of the effectiveness of the online safety commissioner and the media commission in tackling these sorts of issues in circumstances in which there may potentially be a tangential or ancillary technical infringement of the general data protection regulation, GDPR, rules but in which the primary complaint of the complainant relates to an objection to a video or other material posted about that complainant online. The reason for that concern is the harmful effect that content is said to have. We are concerned that, in specifically excluding any material which may even potentially involve ancillary infringement of the GDPR, we will not get to the nub of the issue and that an important opportunity for dealing with complaints that are really based on the nature of the content posted rather than concerns about data processing rules will be excluded from the remit of the media commission.