It’s true, Australia won’t ban ‘sock puppet’ accounts on social media. Here’s why
A ‘sock puppet’ online is a false identity deployed deceptively, but that’s not how researchers use them.
Australia’s new Digital Duty of Care bill aims to enhance online safety by mandating social media platforms to identify and address potential risks of harm. Approved researchers and the eSafety Commissioner are permitted to utilize "sock puppet identities" for observing and testing platform operations. A sock puppet is defined as a "false or fictitious identity" used on an online service.
Researchers must have ethics approval and be affiliated with an Australian university. They can create controlled accounts, observe platform features, and test how the service responds to actions. This technique, known as a "sock puppet audit," helps study the recommendation pathways and treat different users differently by creating accounts that only differ in assumed characteristics.
The purpose of these audits is to expose critical public interest information about platforms, not to deceive the public or manipulate users. Platforms can ban fake accounts at their discretion, and Australian law would protect researchers using these identities. The bill does not ban anonymous or pseudonymous accounts for ordinary Australians and allows the eSafety Commissioner to generate material for testing platforms' safety measures.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
