legal
Introduces 'digital duty of care' that will mean Aussies get ‘my feed, my way’ – without algorithms if requested
Australia’s government will introduce legislation that tries to regulate digital services and impose a “digital duty of care.”“For too long, tech companies have been running real-time, unregulated product testing on Australians,” Minister for Communications Anika Wells said today.“In the same way that we have safety standards for cars, for food, and for appliances, Australia is getting basic safety standards for the online tools and online services,” she added. “Tech companies will still be allowed to move fast, but they will not be able to break things.”
Meta, in its early years when still known as Facebook, used the term “Move fast and break things” to describe its internal processes for creating and updating its services. The premise of Australia’s plans is that Meta, and other digital platforms, broke far more than they intended in pursuit of profit.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese framed the planned digital duty of care as a successor to the law that means social media companies are not allowed to provide accounts to children aged under 16.“We would no longer let Australian children be treated as commodities,” he said. “We have the opportunity to shape tech for the better, rather than have it shape us.”The proposed law aims to shape tech by requiring social media companies to give Australian users the chance to determine what they see in their feeds.Some in Australia have criticized the planned law as government censorship.Albanese tried to counter that notion by summarizing the intent of the plan as “My feed, my way.”“This is not about giving government control,” Albanese said. “It is about giving people control.”
