Public support for social media regulation in Australia

As the Australian federal government drafts laws on a proposed "digital duty of care," a majority of the country's population is asking the government for more power to control social media activities and their algorithms. According to a recent survey conducted by Essential Research, led by author and consent activist Chanel Contos, 71% of Australians believe the government should intervene to mandate an "opt-in" feature for social media algorithms to select content.

Meanwhile, the Albanese government is working on an amendment to the Online Safety Act, with the related digital duty of care expected to be introduced to Parliament before the end of this year. Through these new laws, all online service providers, including social media platforms, generative AI chatbots, and app stores, will be legally bound to provide the highest practically achievable level of safe online environment for Australians.

According to these new draft laws, ensuring the safety of artificial intelligence, systems that recommend or generate content through algorithms, and bot accounts has been identified as a primary responsibility of service providers. There is also the possibility of imposing fines on organizations that violate these responsibilities and fail to take steps to rectify them.

Chanel Contos points out that people are subjected to various harms through algorithms, and due to problems such as being compelled to spend more time with their phones and being exposed to distressing content that harms mental health and personal relationships, people desire more control over this. She further emphasizes that the government must act immediately as the situation continues to worsen.

This survey, conducted by researchers using over 1000 individuals, revealed that approximately three-quarters of them wish to have complete control over what they see online and how their personal information is used. Public support for this content opt-in feature is seen across political party lines, with 76% of Labor voters agreeing to it, and support from Greens party voters also being high at 68%.