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Attempt to de-Platform the BSA fails
By Steven | April 1, 2026
The BSA has ruled that it has jurisdiction to receive complaints against the online media company, The Platform. “Using an unduly technical interpretation to exclude online broadcasters would create a significant gap in the protections available to New Zealanders”, it wrote. “We consider the standards regime logically, and appropriately, includes online broadcasters such as The Platform.”
Read the decision. It’s an orthodox exercise in statutory interpretation. I think it’s right. You might disagree with the conclusion (there are some quite good arguments both ways) but you’d have to be pretty unhinged to describe it as, say, “bordering on fascist“.
This ruling presumably applies to Reality Check Radio too (it was invited to make submissions, and did so), but I’m not sure it goes any further. The BSA is at pains to note that its decision “solely concerns the Act’s application to a New Zealand entity which (a) during its hours of operation is streaming online, in a linear form (ie playing continuously), content readily accessible to the New Zealand public via any smart phone, smart television, computer or other internet connected telecommunications device, [and] (b) is a company, holding itself out as a media outlet… and deriving revenue from its operations, including via advertising.”
So, no Zoom calls. No individual streaming their own workplace. No ad hoc content sharing. No Netflix, Apply TV, Prime, Disney Plus, You Tube and similar systems generally likely to be covered by the on-demand exception (though it seems the door is still open for argument about, say, live streaming over YouTube).
Sean Plunket famously described the man who made the complaint as a “plonker” for not knowing that The Platform was not subject to the BSA’s jurisdiction. He may have been overly hasty.
I would not be surprised to see an appeal to the High Court. My money’s on the High Court – that well-known hotbed of fascist activists – upholding this decision.
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