Albanese follows Australia's under-16 ban with a duty of care and an algorithm opt-out

Australia's planned rules would create a digital duty of care and let social media users opt out of the algorithms ranking their feeds ^[6]. In the Netherlands, after a legal challenge found Meta was not compliant with the EU's Digital Services Act, a court ordered the company to add an easily accessible option for Facebook and Instagram users to block algorithmic recommendations, backed by fines ^[16][17]. Meta's US$18bn settlement with American state governments last month commits it to default daily time limits and night-time blocks ^[18]. Age assurance decides who can open an account; these three decide what the recommender may do for a user who already has one.

The closure figure is softer than a round number suggests. The Guardian reports the ban is responsible for the closure of as many as 5m accounts in Australia, an upper bound, and does not identify who compiled it ^[4][19]. France, Brazil and Indonesia have followed suit, according to the same account ^[5]. The case that the ban is now an exportable template rests, in this record, on those three country names.

Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Perth, put the caveat on it ^[14]. "It is something that gives them a level of credibility, even if the world-leading nature of some of these plans might be slightly overstated," he told Guardian Australia ^[15]. Leaver pointed to the Dutch ruling, which left Dutch users with more power to shape their feeds than is standard in Europe ^[23].

Domestically the government is buying this cheaply. A DemosAU poll this week found 66% of voters support opt-out requirements for algorithms and 13% opposed ^[9]. That leaves 21% in neither camp and support running about five to one ahead of opposition ^[20]. A majority also said companies should be legally required to reduce foreseeable risks to users, even if it meant more restrictions on their business models ^[10]. "We took action because the community said 'enough was enough', and we would no longer let Australian kids be treated as commodities instead of children," Albanese said ^[7].

One of Albanese's first US stops is Apple's California headquarters, for talks with chair and former chief executive Tim Cook ^[11]. At home, about 160 datacentres have drawn disquiet from nearby communities and questions about how they will be powered ^[12]. On copyright, Albanese appears open to negotiating away Australian protections in order to do business with the same companies he has taken to task over social media ^[13].

An age gate is a signup and re-verification problem confined to the countries that legislate one. Per-user control over ranking, time limits and night-time defaults is now required by an Australian bill in draft, a Dutch injunction in force and a US settlement already signed ^[6][17][18]. Albanese said on Friday: "Australia is working to prevent online harm, particularly for our children, and I am proud that Australia is setting the world standard for digital safety" ^[8].