Government launches social media reform consultation

The government took its first steps towards regulating social media on Thursday, publishing a green paper and launching a public consultation on the issue.

The consultation is set to run until February 27, with members of the public invited to submit their views online.

Speaking at the launch, Equality Minister Rebecca Buttigieg said the reform would strike a balance between protecting vulnerable groups from the harms of social media and upholding freedom of expression.

“Our aim is purely tied to the need to protect children and the vulnerable,” Buttigieg said, promising to keep the protection of freedom of expression “at the heart of the discussion”.

Buttigieg said local and international studies showed how, despite its positive contributions to society, social media was also driving higher rates of stress, anxiety and social isolation, with more people now exposed to online bullying and sexual harassment.

In October, Buttigieg established a technical committee to drive the reform, with the committee expected to draft a report to be presented to Cabinet once the consultation has closed.

The committee’s first task, a green paper published on Thursday, stops short of proposing any measures, instead posing a series of questions on what steps should be taken, including whether age restrictions should be tightened, and whether verification systems should be introduced to weed out fake profiles.

Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon, who also spoke at the launch, warned that social media “has become judge, jury and executioner”, with the onus of proof to exonerate themselves often falling on the victims of harassment.

“This is particularly difficult for vulnerable groups, so we have a duty to help them,” Falzon said.

Falzon highlighted how different countries around the world were testing different approaches, with some experimenting with age restrictions while others looked to time-based curfews as tools to limit social media use.

Buttigieg had first floated the idea of regulating social media late last year, describing it as “a reality we can’t ignore” in an opinion piece published on the Times of Malta.

Robert Abela followed suit earlier this year, promising to launch a discussion on legislation to ensure that “children under 13 years old have their access to social media regulated”.

A Times of Malta poll held earlier this year found that almost three-quarters of people would welcome tighter restrictions on social media use.

Nevertheless, any new regulations are likely to be controversial, not least among social media platforms themselves.

In a landmark decision last year, Australia banned under-16s from social media altogether, much to the dismay of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

The European Parliament is pushing for similar measures to be introduced across Europe, passing a resolution on age restrictions late last month.