The 2025 federal election campaign has seen a wave of controversy, from targeted leaflet drops to influencers pushing political content.
While the Australia Electoral Commission (AEC)’s been busy probing political content online, there is still no federal law ensuring truth in political ads.
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On Thursday’s morning episode of The Briefing, we talked to Evan Ekin-Smyth from AEC about whether social media rules are fair, and if new laws could finally change the game.
Ekin-Smyth said that while the watchdog is always active during elections, the way people are campaigning is changing.
“There does seem to be a rise in online modern channels of communication… influencers, podcasters—things of that nature,” he said.
In response, the AEC has launched its own TikTok account to help explain how elections are run and where political messages are coming from.
“It’s meant that we’ve entered the fray with our communication … and are able to provide context,” Ekin-Smyth said.
One of the AEC’s key jobs this year is making sure political content includes authorisation statements so voters know who’s behind it.
But while there are clear rules for how content must be labelled, there’s still no law at the federal level to ensure political advertising is actually truthful.
“We’re not the internet police, we don’t want to be the internet police, we’re not the truth police even,” he added.
“People can campaign freely… and then it’s up to the voter to decide what they make of that.”
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