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“My Feed, My Way”: what Australia’s algorithm choice means for brands
October 2026
Anastasia Prikhodko, Account Director
Choose your own adventure. Australians are about to get a say in what their social media feeds show them. Anyone who has lost an evening down a rabbit hole they never meant to go down will understand the appeal. Outrage bait earns engagement, engagement earns reach, and that cycle shapes politics and public discourse in Australia and around the world.
A choice, built into the default feed
The Albanese Government’s next step on digital duty of care is a plan dubbed “My Feed, My Way”. Under the plan, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook would notify new and existing users and offer a choice over their default feed. Users who opt in keep personalised content recommended by the algorithm. Users who opt out see only the friends and creators they follow.
The idea behind the bill is to move the responsibility onto platforms to identify and mitigate foreseeable risks before harm occurs, rather than responding once harmful content is posted.
The obligation could extend to messaging services, search engines, gaming platforms, app stores, hosting providers and generative AI services.
Platforms that don’t comply risk facing fines of more than A$100 million. The proposal also halves the time before the commissioner can intervene on cyberbullying and adult cyber abuse complaints, from 48 hours to 24, adds search-engine delisting powers and doubles the maximum penalty for breaching the under-16 social media restrictions.
Will people use it?
History says yes, as long as the choice is clear. When Apple introduced its 2021 ad-tracking prompt in iOS, users opted out in such numbers that it cost Meta US$10 billion in a single quarter.
Design decides the outcome, though. Platforms often place safety tools deep in settings, then point to low take-up as proof that people like the product as it is. For example, in the landmark US court case earlier this year, Instagram chief executive praised the app’s 90%+ retention rate for its teen safety feature while omitting the fact that only 1.8% of teens had ever turned it on.
Europe offers another lesson. Meta introduced a no-algorithm feed in 2023 to comply with European Union law, yet in 2025 a Dutch court found users were returned to the algorithm whenever they closed and reopened the app. The drafting of the Australian bill will determine how much choice users actually get.
What it means for brands
Organic reach on Instagram already demands paid support, even for brands producing strong content. A feed built on follows could lead to two changes.
Today, an algorithm decides whether a follower sees your post, and it weighs your content against everything else competing for attention. In a feed limited to followed accounts, the follower is the audience. People who chose to follow you are the people who see you. The quality of an audience starts to matter more than its size.
The second is that a chronological feed rewards volume. If the feed shows everything from followed accounts in order of posting, the organisations with the resources to produce and publish the most content dominate it. That is a different version of pay to play, where the cost is production capacity instead of advertising spend.
The outcome rests on two points the bill has not yet settled. Will the choice be easy to find, and will it stay in place once made?
The road to legislation
The legislation is expected in parliament before Christmas and will likely face a lengthy public inquiry. The coalition opposes the plan, which hands the Greens leverage as they push for a private right of action so individuals can seek compensation.
The party also wants fines set as a percentage of global revenue. It is the first negotiation under new Greens leader David Shoebridge, who has signalled a firmer approach to online safety than his predecessor.
Public sentiment backs the government. A Pew Research Center survey of Australian adults, conducted from 30 March to 13 April 2026, found 82% support restricting children’s access to social media, with 51% supporting it strongly. Even daily social media users are in favour, at 79%.
Australia is also setting the pace internationally. France, Britain and New Zealand are following its lead on social media restrictions for children, even as experts say the system introduced in December is only partly effective.
When users decide what they see, reach stops being something brands buy and becomes something they earn.
