STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator TYRRELL (Tasmania) (13:24): Seventy per cent of young people get their news from social media. For an entire generation, social media isn't just entertainment. It's where they learn about the world, form opinions and, increasingly, engage with politics, and that should matter to all of us, because young, impressionable people are learning about politics through algorithms that aren't designed to inform them but are designed to keep them scrolling.
Right now, One Nation is actively recruiting young people, not with policy—we know they have none—but with grievance. They use fast, emotional and algorithm-friendly content to draw young people in and feed them misinformation. We know that the algorithm rewards cheaply made rage bait with the most clicks online, and this is exactly what One Nation is using to grab people's attention.
Our democracy shouldn't be at the mercy of AI made memes and misinformation that spreads simply because it makes people angry. But the answer isn't to tell young people to switch off from politics; it's the absolute opposite. I've spoken with young people in Tassie who tell me they don't want to ignore politics.
They want to understand the issues that affect their lives. They want to have a say in their future. And social media can help with that.
It can make politics more accessible than ever before. But there is a very large difference between using social media to get people involved in politics and allowing algorithms to decide what political content they see. We should encourage the first and regulate the second, because, when algorithms reward outrage, misinformation and division, reasonable political discussions can get drowned out.
We cannot and will not respond to that by becoming louder and angrier. Instead, our government is increasingly using social media to explain policy, challenge misinformation and give young people a reason to engage with politics in the first place. That's the positive role social media can play in our democracy.
But it's also why the government's My Feed, My Way reform matters. Under the digital duty of care, Australians will have greater choice over their default social media feed. They could continue using an algorithm to shape their feed, or they could choose to see content from the friends and creators they've actually chosen to follow.
That's not about the government deciding what Australians can see; it's about Australians deciding for themselves. It doesn't tell people what political opinions they can hold. It doesn't tell them which party they can support.
It gives people a choice about how their feed is made. It gives people back control. Misinformation is deliberately made for clicks, and dangerous, hateful content is rewarded because it gets people engaged.
We have to question whether that's really the kind of online environment we want, especially for our kids. That's why protecting children and protecting democracy are not separate conversations. Australia has already taken action to protect under-16s from social media accounts and the harmful design features that come with it.
Now, we need to make the online environment safer for everyone, and that means putting responsibility back on the tech companies that design these systems. We shouldn't be asking whether social media is good or bad. We should be asking what we want it to do.
Do we want it to push people into increasingly extreme bubbles? Do we want it to reward whoever can produce the angriest 30-second video? Or do we want it to help Australians understand their communities, engage with their democracy and hear from people they've actually chosen to follow?
I know which kind of social media I want to see—one where kids can engage with politics without being manipulated, one where misinformation can be challenged rather than spread, one where healthy debate happens based on sources you trust, not an unknown algorithm, one where children are protected and one where Australians, not big tech, control their feeds.