Australia: Social Media Algorithms

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

This whole area is clearly developing on an ongoing basis. We will always keep under review whether the measures we have in place are adequate; we will always make sure that we take steps to do that. It is an absolute priority of this Government to keep people safe online, and we want to work across party divides to make sure this happens and that we both harness the benefits of this sector and everything that the online world can contribute and make sure that we keep everyone safe online.

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, the Australian proposals are are all about allowing users to have the choice about what sources they see on their feeds, as are the tools and user empowerment in the Online Safety Act. Does the Minister see a tension here with the approach outlined in the Government’s media Green Paper, which is about giving the Government the power to decide which news sources are trustworthy? If we are giving people choice to switch off algorithms, will they have the opportunity to opt out of government-sanctioned trustworthy news in due course?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a very interesting point, and I would be very keen to discuss it further with him. We are working with different and conflicting issues. We are really keen that it is a priority to make sure that people have trusted sources of news and they know that those news sources that come to the top of their feeds are the most trustworthy. I would be surprised if there was a huge number of people who wanted to turn off an option to get trusted news at the top of their feed, but I am happy to discuss that further with the noble Lord.