Proposed laws would let you opt out of social media algorithms. An expert explains

Anna Barclay / Contributor/Getty Images Social media users could switch off recommender algorithms in their social media feeds, under new draft laws the Australian government plans to unveil this week.

The proposed digital duty of care legislation would hold social media companies to greater account for content on their platforms.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition had yet to see the proposal but warned against efforts to “censor social media”.

The digital duty of care plan is separate to the government’s proposed Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill , which aims to toughen existing rules around the under-16 social media ban.

So what’s been proposed in these digital duty of care laws? And will it help reduce harm? What’s been proposed? Under the proposed digital duty of care legislation: users could opt out of social media recommender algorithms via pop-up messages social media companies would be expected to identify and manage risks on their platforms the onus would be on platforms to stop harmful content (such as illegal pornography) from being shared.

The ABC reported that, for under-18s: about half a dozen additional areas of ‘psycho-social harm’ would be identified, including content about body image and bullying.

Under the plan, breaches of the law would lead to fines of more than A$100 million.

Read more: Australians could soon be able to choose what appears in their social media feed.

How would this work? Will it help? The devil will be in the detail, which we won’t know until the full plans are released in the week ahead.

That said, there have long been calls for digital duty of care laws in Australia – since well before the under-16s social media ban – and it’s good to see these calls being considered.

The onus should be on platforms and other online entities to better test the risks of their products, before features are rolled out.

In an ideal world, that would mean they could mitigate the risks and evaluate whether features or tools do more harm than good before they are released.

If they are found to being causing harm, platforms could not roll them out at all, or ensure they aren’t available to children and young people.

As with the social media ban, it looks like the government will try to put legislation in place before sorting out the technical details of how it will work.