Australia to opt out of social media algorithms, Albanese confirms

smh.com.au

16 points·mrkpdl··9 comments

It's refreshing to feel us try and push the societal envelope again after two decades of stagnation. I only hope it doesn't go the way our proposed-but-torpedoed carbon emissions tax in the late 2000s and the butchered NBN rollout of the 2010s.

Oh, I wonder if this means GitHub's forced activity feed that was pushed onto everyone a while back will be wound back then?

That's the one where they started giving everyone an algorithm driven engagement feed, instead of showing the latest changes from the projects you'd bookmarked.

Their new feed had ~99% user rejection, but (from rough memory) was apparently cheaper to operate so GitHub did it anyway.

Opt out instead of a full ban? I can't believe Australia of all countries is the one enforcing user choice. EU should take notes.

USA can also take notes.

If it doesn’t generate campaign dollars or stock profits for congressional members, it doesn’t happen.

Could the adults get that too?

Sounds like yes, as the quote from the article:

> ... give people over the age of 16 genuine and enduring choice about what they see in their feeds.

Kids are banned altogether. This is for anyone over 16 who can use social media at all.

Better article without paywall:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/08/austr...

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