The communications minister, Anika Wells, is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP View image in fullscreen The communications minister, Anika Wells, is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Australian politics Labor plans crackdown on social media algorithms as Taylor says he’s ‘deeply sceptical’ Anika Wells expected to release legislation creating a digital duty of care in parliament this week, but Coalition argues it is ‘attempt to censor the internet’
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Prefer the Guardian on Google Labor’s plan to crack down on social media algorithms faces significant opposition in federal parliament, with the opposition leader, Angus Taylor , warning against efforts by the government to “censor” free speech online.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week.
Among new rules being considered are functions requiring popular social media platforms to allow users to turn off algorithms controlling the content in their feeds, and to better identify problematic or illegal content to protect vulnerable users including children.
Opt-out options for algorithms would give users the choice to make their social media feeds only feature content from friends and groups they choose to follow.
Labor wants to better protect social media users from being fed content that reinforces dangerous stereotypes and behaviours, including in areas around body image, women’s safety and child protection.
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Fines of more than $100m would be created for breaches, with new powers given to the eSafety commissioner and researchers to investigate compliance by big platforms.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese , is expected to spruik the plan at the United Nations general assembly in New York later this month.
Taylor told News24 on Sunday the government should focus on fixing problems with its under 16s social media ban before taking on new rules like the digital duty of care.
Read more “I think everyone’s very disappointed at the way the government has implemented the initiatives to stop young Australians from getting access to social media,” he said.
“It’s something like a 4.4% reduction we’ve seen, which is just immaterial in the scheme of things. What we want to see is parents having more control over what the kids get to see on social media.
“We’ll wait and see this legislation. I’m deeply sceptical. I fear that this is just going to be an attempt by the government to censor social media.”
He warned against the communications minister having “enormous” discretion in any new powers.
“I fear, given Labor and the minister’s past biases, that this will just be an attempt to censor the internet, and that’s not what we should be doing.”
The shadow home affairs minister, the outgoing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, likened the government’s plans to dumped anti-misinformation legislation introduced during Labor’s first term in government.
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