Counterattack against toxic push! Australia plans to force communities to set up algorithm switches, violators will be fined $2.1 billion

Australian Prime Minister Albanese (second from left) held a press conference and announced that he would legislate to allow people to turn off social media algorithms. (European News Agency)

In order to protect users from "toxic content" promoted by social media algorithms, the Australian government submitted to Congress this week a set of major bills to crack down on technology giants. The core is to force social platforms to set up "algorithm off switches" so that users can choose to only view posts by tracking targets.

The "BBC" reported that this policy is the core content of the Australian government's "Digital Duty of Care" (Digital Duty of Care) bill. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized: "This is not giving control to the government, but giving control back to the people."

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The bill requires all online service providers, including social media, gaming websites, and chatbots, to ensure the security of the online environment to the extent reasonably practicable. Operators are obliged to prevent children from being exposed to "harmful content" such as pornography, promoting eating disorders or misogynistic remarks; adults must also be protected from "seriously harmful" illegal content. Illegal platforms will face huge fines of up to 100 million Australian dollars (approximately NT$2.1 billion).

Communications Minister Anika Wells pointed out that this bill shifts the focus of responsibility from the victims to the multinational technology giants who are trying to make huge profits. In response to external concerns about whether it infringes on freedom of speech, she emphasized that adults can still freely access niche speech, discuss politics or share memes, and users’ rights to follow and post independently will not be restricted.

The European Union will implement similar regulations in 2023, but major platforms adopt a "passive legality" strategy and design non-algorithm interfaces to be clumsy and difficult to use, resulting in extremely low user willingness to use them. In this regard, the Australian government will clearly stipulate that the "pure tracking activity" function must not be reduced or made more difficult to use, and the settings must be conspicuous and easy to understand, and cannot be reset without the user's consent.

A poll this month showed that two-thirds of Australia's Gen Z would keep their social media algorithms, but overall, nearly half of Australians would choose to turn them off.