Treasurers don’t often concern themselves with matters of communications policy, so when Jim Chalmers starts talking about algorithms, we should listen. Last week, while plugging the national accounts, he described how algorithms “deliberately polarise” and belong on the shortlist of the country’s biggest problems. The harms from algorithms are just as troubling from an economic perspective as from the more well-travelled social policy domain.Australians are bearing real costs because of social media algorithms. Australia is a global epicentre for online scams, and social media platforms are the perfect vector for them. Researchers have noted that for most users, the difference between systems that run ads and the perfect “scam delivery systems” has become “academic”. Meaning, that feed that too many of us doomscroll on for memes and reels is equally suitable for industrial-scale commercial fraud.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles