The script has flipped. Canberra has just doubled the financial stick for social media firms that fail to police illegal content. Fines now hit 5% of global turnover. That is the real deal. And here in Westminster, peers are moving fast to copy the playbook.
Sources close to the Lords communications committee confirm that a near-identical amendment to the Online Safety Bill is being drafted. It would mirror the Australian model. No more slaps on the wrist. The message: if you don't clean up your act, you pay.
This is not the usual cross-Channel chat. This is a coordinated strike. Labour frontbenchers are said to be 'very interested'. Backbench Tories are getting briefed. The whips are nervous. Why? Because this could actually pass.
The Australian decision came this morning. The UK draft appears to have been prepared weeks ago. That timing is no accident. Smart money says this is a 'break glass' plan from the prime minister's team. They want to be seen as tough on tech. But the real game is to outflank Labour on safety before the election.
Don't expect a smooth ride. The big platforms will fight. They always do. But the mood in the Lords is shifting. Too many scandals. Too many dead children. The old refrain of 'self-regulation' sounds hollow now.
One senior peer put it bluntly: 'If Australia can do it, why can't we?' That is the question rattling around the corridors right now. The answer is coming faster than anyone predicted.
