CANBERRA, Australia – Australians will be granted the legal right to disable automated recommendation algorithms on major social media platforms under landmark “digital duty of care” legislation scheduled to be introduced into the Federal Parliament this week, Communications Minister Anika Wells announced in Canberra on Monday, September 7, 2026.
The proposed legislative framework seeks to curb algorithmic addiction and protect users from predatory digital mechanics by imposing proactive safety obligations on multinational technology corporations, including Meta, ByteDance’s TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, and X.
Okay News reports that under the draft legislation, tech giants that fail to provide Australian users with an easily accessible option to turn off algorithm-driven recommendations and revert their feeds to linear chronological displays will face substantial financial penalties of up to A$100 million (approximately $66 million).
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday morning, Minister Wells, who steered the Albanese government’s world-first statutory ban on social media accounts for children under 16 late last year, said the reforms establish basic accountability across an industry that has operated without baseline consumer protections.
“We want to give Australians more choice over what they see on their social media feeds,” Wells told the ABC. “We know that a lot of Australians appreciate the algorithm both for the enjoyment they get out of it or the utility that they get out of it, seeing local businesses in their suburb. A lot of Australians will want to choose the algorithm. But we think that big tech should offer them the choice in the first place and they should respect that choice. Big tech is not a protected species and they should offer their customers basic safety standards.”
The minister explained that the federal government is currently taking technical and expert advice on the practical operational mechanics of the law, specifically whether users will encounter an opt-out toggle or be required to give affirmative consent through an opt-in model before algorithmic curation is activated.
Beyond feed controls, the draft bill establishes a statutory duty of care requiring platforms to identify systemic risks and actively suppress harmful material, including illegal pornography, non-consensual sexual content, and media promoting disordered eating and self-harm.
The regulatory push has sparked fierce debate in Canberra, with Federal Opposition and Liberal Party Leader Angus Taylor expressing deep skepticism over the government’s motivations, warning that the intervention could open the door to state-sponsored speech restrictions.
Taylor argued that the Labor administration should first focus on fixing operational loopholes in its under-16 social media ban, citing research indicating that millions of underage Australians continue to access platforms via unverified accounts.
“I am deeply sceptical. I fear that this is going to be an attempt by the government to censor social media,” Taylor said during an interview with News24, warning against conferring broad administrative discretion on regulatory bodies to police online content.
Rejecting the criticism, Wells emphasized on Channel Nine’s Today programme that the legislation is focused on systemic design safeguards rather than censoring lawful discourse, arguing that platforms must be legally compelled to mitigate the harms generated by their own commercial amplification tools.
The parliamentary push follows high-profile advocacy by Teach Us Consent founder Chanel Contos, who addressed the National Press Club in Canberra last week, warning that unregulated recommendation engines push young men into misogynistic and violent rabbit holes within minutes of creating accounts and urging lawmakers to enforce a default opt-in regime.
Debate on the digital duty of care bill is expected to commence during the current parliamentary sitting, with international digital rights watchdogs and regulators across Europe and North America closely monitoring Australia’s legislative model for algorithmic governance.
