Reddit announces it's taking the Australian government to the High Court

Reddit has filed a lawsuit against the Australian government over its social media ban for under-16s, arguing its impact will be minimal.

Reddit announces it's taking the Australian government to the High Court
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Tech and Science Editor
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TL;DR: Reddit is legally challenging Australia's ban on social media access for users under 16, arguing it infringes on political discourse and freedom of expression. The platform claims the restrictions misapply to Reddit's primarily adult, forum-based model and won't significantly impact content access or user interactions.

Reddit has announced it will be challenging the Australian government's decision to ban popular social media platforms for under-16s and implement age verification restrictions on platforms.

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Reddit has alleged that the ban and the restrictions that follow infringe on the platform's freedom of political discourse. For those who don't know, Australia recently implemented a social media ban for under-16s that requires the top social media apps to block access to their platform for those under that age, including current account holders. The ban went into effect on Wednesday.

In response to the ban, Reddit has filed a lawsuit in the Australian High Court against the regulator implementing the ban, writing the ban could prevent teenagers from engaging in political discussions years before they become voters, suppressing their freedoms. Reddit added that there is a large amount of content teenagers can view on its platform, and the new restrictions wouldn't have much impact anyway.

"This law is applied to Reddit inaccurately, since we're a forum primarily for adults and we don't have the traditional social media features the government has taken issue with," writes Reddit

Reddit adds the Amendment Act "does not impose any obligation on providers to restrict access to content on the site that is accessible without an account," and pointed out the "obligation would not affect user access to 'logged-out' versions of a social media platform".

"Reddit enables online interactions about the content that users post on the site. It facilitates knowledge sharing from one user to other users," the filing states

"It is not a significant purpose of the site to enable interactions engaged in because of a particular user's relationship with or interest in another user as a person; indeed, in most cases, the identity of a user on Reddit is not even known to other users. In this way, Reddit is significantly different from other sites that allow for users to become 'friends' with one another, or to post photos about themselves, or to organise events," the company said