Australia's Labor government opened a public consultation on Tuesday (Sept. 8) on legislation that would require the big platforms to give social media users the option to switch off algorithmic recommendations and see only posts from friends, creators and other accounts they have chosen to follow. Companies that violate the package, called the Digital Duty of Care, could face fines of up to 109.2 million Australian dollars, about $79 million. The feed requirement is nicknamed My Feed, My Way.
Under the proposal, announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, platforms would have to explain how the default feed is assembled and notify new and existing users about the choice. Today, anyone opening Instagram, TikTok or YouTube gets a display case arranged by an algorithm, a system that logs likes, pauses and videos watched to guess what holds each person's attention, then serves more of it. It works like a supermarket that rearranges its aisles on every visit based on where the shopper stops. The Australian option would give users back fixed shelves: only what the accounts they follow have posted.
The package also expands the powers of eSafety, Australia's online safety regulator, which could demand the rapid removal of harmful or illegal content, including nudity. Free speech advocates say the expansion opens the door to censorship. "This is not about giving control to government. It is about giving control to people," Albanese replied, calling the reform "sensible, pragmatic and practical", according to G1.
"The bill will ensure that online service providers, including some of the most powerful companies in the world, take responsibility and do more to keep Australians safe from harm on their platforms."
Those words are from Communications Minister Anika Wells. The duty of care also covers online games, apps and artificial intelligence chatbots, which would have to protect users under 18 from potentially addictive design features or features that harm self-esteem, and to prevent children and teenagers from seeing content that promotes eating disorders, hostility toward women, pornography, the glorification of crime or harassment. The proposal follows Australia's ban, in force since late 2025, on social media accounts for children under 16, with age verification made the platforms' own responsibility. Meta declined to comment and TikTok and Snap did not respond to requests, according to a Bloomberg report published by InfoMoney. The announcement comes a month after Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle lawsuits by US states over the effects of social media on teenagers.
Why the platforms will resist
The business model explains the friction. Platforms sell advertising priced by attention, and the recommendation engine is the machine that manufactures attention by endlessly serving whatever is best at holding each user. The European experience shows the size of the resistance. Since 2024, the EU's Digital Services Act has required platforms to offer users a way to opt out of profile-based personalized recommendations, and regulators have said some companies made that option hard to reach. According to Folha, which carried a report from the Financial Times, Wells argues the Australian design would go further: it would place on companies the obligation to guarantee users the right to refuse algorithmic feeds, instead of only offering an alternative. "There is a global shift toward governments seeking to empower users and offer more control over how they interact with digital services, including the ability to limit personalization features," Ewan Lusty, a partner at consultancy Flint Global, told Bloomberg.
What we still do not know
The text is under consultation and can change. The government wants to hear from technology companies, industry groups and civil society organizations before sending the bill to Parliament, expected later this year. Implementation details, such as deadlines and enforcement, have not been defined. For now, nothing changes for users outside Australia. Watch the final shape of the algorithm-free option, and whether it will be easy to find or buried in deep menus, as happened in Europe. A practical test today: look in your app's settings for a non-personalized feed switch. Whoever finds it already knows the format Australia wants to make mandatory.