The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and US president, Donald Trump, in the White House in October 2025. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP View image in fullscreen The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and US president, Donald Trump, in the White House in October 2025. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP Social media Albanese plays down Trump’s ‘censorship’ warning over Labor social media crackdown Trump administration expresses ‘serious concerns’ that forcing firms to allow algorithm opt-out would infringe Americans’ free speech
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Prefer the Guardian on Google Anthony Albanese has played down US President Donald Trump’s opposition to Australia’s proposed digital duty of care laws , insisting the plan will not give the government the power to censor political thought or police the internet.
Overnight, the Trump administration warned the federal government that its plans to boost online safety through new protections for users risked becoming a mechanism for “viewpoint-based censorship” and called for American platforms to be exempted.
Restating strong opposition to measures the White House considers “extraterritorial censorship of protected speech by Americans online”, the US has used a submission to the Albanese government’s public consultation process to express serious concerns about Australia’s communications minister having legal powers to declare “foreseeable harm”.
The intervention coincided with the prime minister’s attendance at a cocktail party for world leaders hosted by the US president, Donald Trump , at the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, New York time. It will also embolden the Coalition, which opposes the duty of care laws on the grounds they would hand too much power to the government to regulate online content.
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Asked about the US view, Albanese said he was standing up for Australia’s national interest by improving online safety, including for children.
“It’s not about giving government control, it’s about giving people back control over what they receive on their devices, which is why it is framed in that way,” he said.
“The fact is that we have released an exposure draft of legislation. We haven’t even introduced the legislation before Parliament.
“We will engage constructively. I hope the whole of the Parliament supports it. This should not be a partisan issue. This is about giving power back to Australians rather than big global tech companies.”
On Wednesday, Albanese posted a photo of himself and Trump on the sidelines of the UN summit, with a caption: “Always good to catch up with @potus”.
Read more A submission published on the website of the US embassy in Canberra on Tuesday night said that the proposed model of protection for users under 18 would unfairly affect users in the US.
“A framework that empowers governments to enforce vague definitions of ‘harm’ risks becoming a mechanism for viewpoint-based censorship, as platforms will be incentivised to over-moderate speech that should be protected to avoid regulatory penalties,” it said.
“If Australia compels platforms to aggressively filter content in algorithmic feeds to satisfy a government mandate, and such filtering draws in protected speech, the effect on a disfavored speaker or media source’s reach would not be meaningfully different than outright r…