Australia prepares legislation to let users turn off social media algorithms

Communications Minister Anika Wells announced draft legislation this week that would require Meta, Google, TikTok and other platforms to offer users the option to disable algorithmic feeds, with substantial penalties for non-compliance.

This is a proposal not yet law. The government has not finalized whether users would opt in or out of algorithms. No tech company has yet been fined under the related social media ban for under-16s despite widespread evidence of continued underage use.