Sydney (AFP)

The Australian government announced Thursday the creation of a working group to "monitor" technology giants, such as Facebook or Google, without imposing restrictive measures.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called in a report for the introduction of new rules to curb the influence of GAFA (acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) and their dominant position at a time when criticism of them is growing.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday selected several of the 23 recommendations issued by the Competition Authority, including the creation of a task force to "monitor" technology giants and "take coercive action if necessary."

He also said that the government, in the face of abuse, would review consumer privacy laws.

But the prime minister has refused to put in place more stringent measures vis-à-vis the GAFA "because of the complexity of these subjects and their potential effects on the entire economy."

These measures included the requirement for GAFA to subject some of their confidential algorithms to external control, and the imposition of "sufficiently serious" sanctions to prevent the proliferation of misinformation or misuse of data by giants. of the internet.

Google and Facebook have seriously affected Australia's media industry by capturing a good portion of advertising revenues, with the result that the number of newspapers and online journalists has dropped by 20% since 2014.

The prime minister instructed the Competition Authority to work with GAFA and press groups to put in place a code of conduct to "reduce imbalances in the balance of power" between the parties.

The measures announced follow an 18-month investigation conducted by the Competition Authority.

"The world is starting to realize the real damage that the power of digital platforms is doing to our society and our economy," said Competition Authority President Rod Sims.

DIGI - a lobby group working on behalf of GAFA, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter - said it would "study the proposals in detail to ensure that consumer protection is well-suited to the era. digital and that there are no unintended consequences "for the digital future and the country's economic growth.

Some 17 million Australians use Facebook every month and spend at least 30 minutes a day on the platform. Some 98% of users use the Google mobile search engine.

© 2019 AFP