The fight to switch off your algorithm
Summary
Annie Kelly interviews activist Chanel Contos about her campaign to regulate social media algorithms in Australia. They discuss how recommendation engines drive teen-on-teen sexual violence and misogyny by serving harmful content. Contos explains how her group, Teach Us Consent, mandated consent education and is now pushing the Digital Duty of Care Bill to let users opt out of algorithms. The episode covers the bill's progress, tech industry resistance, and the broader goal of giving people control over their digital feeds.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: AWS AI
Intro: The changing social media feed
Introduction of Chanel Contos and the episode
Chanel's story and the launch of Teach Us Consent
Mandating consent education in Australian schools
Shifting focus to algorithms and democracy
The rise of teen-on-teen sexual violence in Australia
Algorithmic harm to young girls and women
How algorithmic harm affects men and women differently
Political recognition and the Fix Our Feeds campaign
Building support for the Digital Duty of Care Bill
Explaining opt-in vs opt-out for algorithms
Limitations of current user controls on social media
Meta's design for addiction and whistleblower evidence
Tech industry resistance and US government opposition
The importance of political will and user choice
Assessing the under-16 social media ban in Australia
Strategy: Small targeted interventions and hope
Outro and credits
Sponsor: 4imprint
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