A submission to the Inquiry into the 2025 federal election for the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. This submission is based on research on political disinformation and advertising on WeChat, RedNote and Chinese-language YouTube channels during the 2025 Australian federal election. The findings uncover the challenges in electoral regulation and enforcement, particularly concerning political advertising and disinformation that may undermine Australia’s electoral integrity. 

Recommendations

1. Electoral communications, including paid ads, printed materials or messages from a disclosure entity should include a machine-readable attribution layer for enhanced effectiveness for authorising electoral communications.
2. Political candidates and their offices should be subject to greater transparency in the workflows of political advertising with particular attention to the ‘supply chains’ of political communication.
3. Apply ground-up monitoring of non-major platforms to debunk highly mobile narratives that cross platforms to gain audiences and quickly influence the way electors vote.
4. Artificial intelligence use in campaign materials should be disclosed and monitored, while industry and civic consultation over clear rules to protect integrity and trust in elections continue.