New Zealand's internet safety group Netsafe says Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok, and Twitter have agreed to self-regulate to reduce harmful content in the country
Netsafe’s agreement brings New Zealand into a regional pattern of platform-led content governance: Facebook, Google, TikTok, Twitter and others had already adopted an Australian misinformation code with annual transparency reporting in Australia’s industry code.
The commitment matters against New Zealand’s later evidence of enforcement gaps, including the government’s finding that Twitter did not remove Christchurch attack clips until alerted in the Christchurch-video failure.
First-order effects
Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok and Twitter are now committed through Netsafe to self-regulatory action on harmful content in New Zealand, placing content-safety performance on the agenda for each service.
Netsafe becomes the local convening point for commitments by platforms that otherwise set moderation policy globally.
Second-order effects
Twitter’s later removal failure gives New Zealand officials a concrete benchmark for judging whether voluntary commitments produce faster detection and response, rather than simply published policies.
The participating platforms face pressure to make their New Zealand safeguards legible through the reporting approach already used in Australia’s misinformation code.
Third-order effects
If voluntary codes continue to be paired with measurable disclosure and outside scrutiny, platform governance shifts from one-off pledges toward comparable safety accountability; the later independent teen-safety assessments illustrate that direction.
Repeated failures to meet self-regulatory commitments would strengthen the case for New Zealand institutions to use access restrictions, as seen in the later parliamentary-network TikTok ban, rather than relying solely on platform assurances.
The trend: Online-safety governance is moving from voluntary platform codes toward transparency, independent assessment and targeted institutional restrictions when those codes fall short.
“...a Meta-led effort to subvert a New Zealand institution so that they can claim legitimacy without having done the work to earn it.” https://twitter.com/...
Social media giants agree to ‘first of its kind’ code of conduct in Aotearoa https://www.stuff.co.nz/... Remember when National and Simon Bridges rubbished the Paris Call said PMs meeting was a meanlingness talkfest that would achieve nothing. PM Ardern is once again vindicated
Even setting aside the flaws with the Aotearoa Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms it's notable that Telegram, Rumble and Bitchute have not signed up to this code of conduct, and will no doubt continue to operate as major spreaders of disinformation
Oh please! The companies could have done this for the last 2 decades. We need regulation & penalties (civil and criminal) if they fail to moderate their products and services! Social media giants agree to ‘first of its kind’ code of conduct in Aotearoa https://www.stuff.co.nz/...
The sooner the better. Again we are leading the world. Social media giants agree to ‘first of its kind’ code of conduct in Aotearoa https://www.stuff.co.nz/...
Was part of performative, tokenistic “consultation” to rush this code through early 2022 by former management of Netsafe. Still have notes from review of draft. Gave up because it was so bad, outmoded, & clearly driven by parochial industry motivations. https://twitter.com/... ht…
I do not hold much hope that this will achieve much here. Nice gesture, but an empty one. “Social media giants agree to ‘first of its kind’ code of conduct in Aotearoa” https://www.stuff.co.nz/...