Australia Considers Forcing Smart TVs To Pre-Install Apps From Legacy Media

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Australia is coming up with another radical idea that regards the media business, control over what kind of media content people are likely to see/see first, and inclusion of protectionism and favoritism of certain media in actual regulation. The proposal is pretty comprehensive, as it is supposed to force smart TV manufacturers to have legacy media and state funded outlets’ apps pre-installed on the devices. This, observers say, would give such news outlets a clear advantage over most commercial ones – regardless of which content is more relevant or popular. Critics are already comparing this as being in line with something one might expect from the excesses of real or fictional authoritarian regimes and surveillance states. Given the Australian government’s track record on these and similar issues, which was laid bare during the pandemic, it’s unlikely that any such criticism will faze those behind the Prominence Framework for Connected TV Devices proposal. The draft is the work of the Labor party (specifically the pro-censorship Communication Minister Michelle Rowland), and in addition to pre-installed apps, critics are warning that the regulation, if it passes, would include “manipulated search results for news stories.” In Australia, this would boost broadcasters like ABC and SBS, as well as Nine and Seven, which are commercial, while other commercial media companies, for obvious reasons reporting about this in a very negative manner, mention that FreeTV lobbyists have their hand in…Australia Considers Forcing Smart TVs To Pre-Install Apps From Legacy Media