A Country Is Taking Aim At Social Media Algorithms With A Potentially Huge New Law

Filed 6h ago · Via HuffPost · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Australia's government announced proposed laws that would require social media platforms to let users over 16 opt out of algorithmic feeds in favor of content only from people they follow, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.

The Digital Duty of Care legislation would also require protections against content promoting eating disorders, misogyny, pornography, crime, and dangerous stunts, with penalties up to 109.2 million Australian dollars (about $78.6 million) for noncompliance.

The move follows Australia's world-first ban on under-16 social media accounts introduced last December, and comes as the country's online safety watchdog considers court action against Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube over enforcement of that ban.

The government statement says digital services including AI chatbots and games would also face requirements around addictive design features.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Telling a teenager they cannot have an account and then, in the same breath, building a whole separate law for the algorithm feels like installing a lock on the front door after already nailing the windows shut. Fair enough, maybe both are needed. But the fine print, a fine that maxes out under 80 million dollars against companies that print that much before lunch, tells you who this law is really meant to sting.

Source: Read the original at HuffPost → Scored: Happy Boy End Theme · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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