Australia's Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is set to release draft legislation imposing hefty fines on social media companies who fail to adequately block "misinformation" and "disinformation" from circulation in Australia, a frightening prospect which will likely have far-reaching consequences for political speech in the nation.

Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Under the proposed laws, the authority would be able to impose a new "code" on specific companies that repeatedly fail to combat misinformation and disinformation or an industry-wide "standard" to force digital platforms to remove harmful content.

The maximum penalty for systemic breaches of a registered code would be $2.75 million or 2 per cent of global turnover — whichever is higher.

The maximum penalty for breaching an industry standard would be $6.88 million, or 5 per cent of a company's global turnover. In the case of Facebook's owner, Meta, for example, the maximum penalty could amount to a fine of more than $8 billion.