Five tech media companies – Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, and Twitter – have agreed to sign up for the Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms, a voluntary move in which all five pledge to self-regulate their platforms to actively reduce harmful content in New Zealand. The code focuses on seven themes that lead to harmful content including cyberbullying, incitement of violence, misinformation, and the sexual exploitation of minors. Signatories of the code pledge their best efforts to empower users with more control to make informed decisions, to enhance transparency of their policies, and to support independent research. Critics of the new code say it is nothing more than “window dressing” and that it allows tech giants to avoid actual legal regulation. For more on this story, see ZDNet.
