Opposition is sceptical of new rules and their enforcement
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The “digital duty of care” legislation, expected to be introduced in the Australian parliament this week, would require platforms like X and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook to give their users in Australia the option to turn off algorithms that fine-tune content recommendations to their personal taste.
It is separate from the government’s proposed Online Safety Amendment Bill aiming to strengthen existing rules around the under-16s social media ban.
Under the newly proposed rules, users can opt out of social media algorithms via pop-up messages. Companies would also be expected to identify and manage risks on their platforms, communications minister Anika Wells told ABC News.
The Anthony Albanese government is mulling opt-out options that would give users the choice to make their social media feeds feature content only from those they follow.
These draft rules seek to prevent the dissemination of illegal content on social media and reduce the risk of exposure to harmful behaviours like eating disorders in young people, Ms Wells said.
For children, the new laws also seek to identify half a dozen additional areas of "psycho-social harm", including content about body image and bullying. Under the new plan, breaches of the law would lead to platforms attracting fines of around $72m (A$100m).
Australia’s opposition was unconvinced that the new rules would help the country’s citizens, and suggested it could lead to censorship.
"I am deeply sceptical. I fear that this is going to be an attempt by the government to censor social media, but as I say, we haven't seen it,” opposition leader Angus Taylor said.
"What we want to see is parents having more control over what their kids get to see on social media; we will wait and see this legislation," Mr Taylor said.
It remains to be seen how Australia plans to implement and enforce the new rules.
Independent research has found that even after Australia’s world-first laws banned under-16s from accessing social media platforms in December, a majority of children in the country were still accessing their accounts as of July.
“What matters most with the digital duty of care is ensuring social media platforms are forced to be transparent about their compliance,” said Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies from Curtin University.
“With the proposed digital duty of care laws, it looks like there might be provisions for the eSafety Commissioner and for researchers to be involved in finding out about and testing what companies are doing to ensure compliance with these laws,” Dr Leaver wrote in The Conversation.
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