Hardline free-speech campaigners demand Coalition block Labor's latest social media plan

Advertisement PoliticsFederalSocial media Hardline free-speech campaigners demand Coalition block Labor's latest social media plan Paul Sakkal September 8, 2026 — 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Share A A A Coalition MPs face fierce pushback from right-wing influencers to oppose restrictions on social media content despite Labor insisting it was not interested in curtailing speech. The opposition's position on Labor's digital duty of care laws has turned into the latest litmus test of its purity on free speech, months after a group of populist-right podcasters and streamers flocked to One Nation when the Liberal Party backed laws passed after the Bondi massacre banning neo-Nazi and Islamist groups. Frontbenchers who have at times cultivated the influencers, including Andrew Hastie and Matt Canavan, are under the most pressure as free-speech campaigners have focused on proposals to restrict access to material defined as harmful. Nationals leader Matt Canavan and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. Alex Ellinghausen Hastie revealed on Monday that he had deleted social media apps after a wave of vitriol stemming from the post-Bondi laws. He said he supported the notion of making social media a less addictive and healthier zone but would fight any left-wing moves to censor speech. Advertisement 'Every time you open up that Instagram feed or Facebook, the algorithm is sending you stuff that makes you react,' he said on ABC TV. 'I don't think it helps our critical thinking either. You can see it in someone's eyes when they've been down the rabbit hole.' Related Article Exclusive Political leadership Hanson, Coalition ready to fight Labor's plan to tame social media feeds 'We want to balance personal freedom here ... That's why we've mentioned censorship as one of our concerns.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to make the digital safety crackdown core to his agenda as he shifts from debates on Labor's controversial budget and missed migration targets. The digital duty of care is designed to force platforms to stop harm before it occurs rather than respond to individual complaints about content. It may also allow users to opt out of algorithmic feeds that curate content based on users' interests, which digital safety advocates say can lead to addiction and radicalisation. Advertisement Most Coalition MPs are in favour of rejigging algorithms to make them safer for children. However, the chief concern among Liberals is the potential for the Communications Minister Anika Wells to gain ministerial power to expand the definition of 'harm' in new laws. Wells' actions under these powers can be overturned, or 'disallowed', by a vote in the Senate. Coalition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson has called the proposed powers a 'serious threat to free speech'. Wells said separate changes that create $100 million fines for digital platforms that breach the minimum age laws for social media are 'not a ban on our kids; it's a ban on what is being done to them'. 'The best time to listen to Australian parents and pass the bill would have been two months ago, but the second-best time is this week. The Coalition and the Greens political party must now put politics aside, put parents before platforms,' she said. Pressure on the Coalition to fight Labor's digital duty of care is coming from influencers including anti-lockdown activist Anthony Khallouf and 2WorldCollide podcast host Sam Bamford, an ally of senator Alex Antic. The same group of hardline activists has been critical of One Nation's recent migration policy shift away from net zero or negative migration. Advertisement While the influencers have not raised this as an issue, their own online presence could be affected if algorithms were switched off. Bamford described the digital laws as a 'Trojan horse' to push trans ideology in schools and Indigenous ceremonies in kindergartens. Communications Minister Anika Wells arrives for question time. Alex Ellinghausen Khallouf used the social platform X to put pressure on Canavan by citing the Coalition's failure to oppose an extension of ASIO's existing powers to question suspects, which fired up hardliners wary of government overreach. 'Gonna show up to vote against the digital duty of care legislation or be stuck on smoko break again?' Khallouf stated. Advertisement Anti-Labor comedian Dave Hughes mocked Wells on Monday after the minister said social media had fostered distrust in government. Hughes suggested Labor had brought the distrust on itself by breaking election promises on property tax concessions. Related Article AI Labor's duty of care policy will extend to big AI firms. Here's what it means Independent MP Allegra Spender said the Coalition and One Nation were wrong to cast the proposal as a form of censorship. 'I'm genuinely confused how the leaders of One Nation, the Liberals and the Nationals can conclude that letting people opt in and out of social media algorithms is a form of censorship,' she said. 'Social media corporations design their secret algorithms to maximise their profits. They have no interest in free speech. Their interest is targeted advertising.' Advertisement A separate bill to strengthen Labor's under-16 social media ban will also be debated this week, allowing the online safety regulator to compel documents from companies and doubling the penalties for platforms. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter. From our partners