Australia to mandate social media algorithm opt-out under new digital duty laws

Australia is preparing to give its citizens the power to turn off the algorithms that decide what appears in their social media feeds. Communications Minister Anika Wells announced this week that draft legislation would soon be introduced requiring platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok to offer users the ability to opt out of algorithmic content curation. Companies that refuse to provide this option would face what Wells described as "substantial" penalties.

Wells, who last year steered the government's landmark social media ban for children under 16, framed the new digital duty of care laws as a necessary correction to an industry that has operated without meaningful safety guardrails. "Big tech is not a protected species," she said, arguing that platforms should be held to basic safety standards like any other business. The minister acknowledged that many Australians value algorithms—for entertainment, for discovering local businesses, for utility—but insisted that the choice to use them should belong to the user, not be imposed by default.

The government has not yet settled on the mechanics of how this would work. Officials are still taking expert advice on whether users should have to actively opt in to algorithmic feeds, making them the default off position, or whether they would opt out, leaving algorithms on unless users disable them. This mirrors the approach taken with the under-16s social media ban introduced last December, where the government moved forward with the core principle before finalizing all implementation details.

Wells acknowledged a gap between ambition and enforcement. Despite research showing that the vast majority of children under 16 who used social media before the ban still access platforms, no tech company has yet been fined for violating the ban. When pressed on this enforcement record, she did not dispute the finding but pivoted to the government's intent with the new legislation.

Opposition to the proposal has emerged from within the Liberal Party. Leader Angus Taylor said he was "highly sceptical" of the move, arguing it could amount to government censorship of social media. He suggested the government should first address gaps in the existing under-16s ban rather than introduce new restrictions. Some opposition members support the principle of giving users more control, but others share Taylor's concern that the legislation represents an overreach into editorial decisions made by private platforms.

Wells pushed back against the censorship charge, reframing the proposal as a matter of risk identification and mitigation. "This isn't about censorship," she told the Today show. "This is about identifying risks or making big tech identify the risks on their own platform and making big tech mitigate against those risks." The legislation is also expected to require platforms to prevent the spread of illegal pornography and content promoting disordered eating.

The push for algorithmic transparency has found support from unexpected quarters. Chanel Contos, a high-profile consent advocate, recently spoke at Australia's National Press Club calling on the government to make algorithmic feeds opt-in rather than opt-out, making it harder for tech companies to circumvent the rules. Contos argued that algorithms are amplifying sexual violence in Australia and exposing young people to misogynistic online communities. Her intervention signals that the debate over algorithmic control extends beyond tech policy into questions about gender-based harm and online radicalization.

The draft legislation is expected to be introduced within days. It represents another step in Australia's increasingly assertive approach to regulating social media, following the world-first ban on under-16s accessing platforms. Whether the government can enforce these new rules more effectively than it has the existing ban remains an open question.