In brief
- Digital duty of care laws will compel social media companies to protect users from harmful content.
- It will also offer Australians the option to opt out of seeing personally recommended content from social media algorithms.
Australian internet users will be given the choice to opt out of algorithmic recommendations under proposed social media reforms.
Draft laws setting up a digital duty of care were introduced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.
As part of the measures, social media companies will need to provide tools for people to choose what they see in their online feeds, under a government initiative called My Feed, My Way.
Social media companies have been accused of creating addictive algorithms that keep people endlessly scrolling through recommended content. Advocates have called for a reversion to chronological feeds that show posts from friends and other accounts a user follows.
"This is not about giving government control. It's about giving people control. It's about putting choice back into the hands of Australians online," Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
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"If people want to doom scroll, as you call it, that's fine, that's up to them," he said.
"But if people want to have a change, then this will provide them with the opportunity."
He pointed to global discussion over harms linked to social media, including at the United Nations.
"It's a debate that's taking place in countries all around the world, because of the sort of impact that we're seeing," he added, citing a rise in mental health issues and eating disorders as examples.
The reforms had drawn backlash from both the Coalition and Greens before being formally announced, with Opposition leader Angus Taylor suggesting it could be akin to censorship.
Meanwhile, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for the opt-out algorithm to be made the default setting.
'A global reckoning coming for big tech'
Under the draft laws, social media companies will also be required to protect people from harmful content online.
Harmful content will include the promotion of eating disorders, misogynistic content, pornography or content that glorifies crime.
Albanese said the legislation would empower the government to issue removal notices for 'nudify' apps and websites, which typically use artificial intelligence to create fake nude images of people without their consent.
Sharing that type of content — nonconsensual deepfake sexualised images — is already illegal in much of Australia, but developing the tools to do so isn't.
Companies could face fines of $100 million if they don't enact the duty of care.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the duty of care would build on the world-leading ban on social media for under-16s Australia introduced last year.
"The digital duty of care is not about controlling adults online. It is about giving adults a choice," she said.
"Tech companies can still move fast, but they will no longer be allowed to break things because online harms have real-world consequences.
"There is a global reckoning coming for big tech."
It follows the government looking to pursue stronger penalties for social media companies as part of measures to bolster the under-16s ban.
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