The Australian government’s commitment to online censorship is playing out in yet another way – the perceived harmful influence social platforms have on young men and boys.
Aligned media outlets agree these sites are showing too much content that is branded as misogynistic and promoting harmful gender stereotypes.
Meanwhile, government ministers want to see the companies behind platforms “do” (aka, censor) more.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, known for her pro-censorship stance, and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth are both quoted in a Guardian article about an “experiment” the outlet carried out by setting up fake accounts representing “generic 24-year-old males” on Facebook and Instagram.
The accounts did not interact – the goal was to see what would be showing up in their algorithmically-recommended feeds. And that the device and the email used to sign up were new, was apparently enough for the Guardian to believe they were safe from Meta’s tracking.
The article’s conclusion is that over the following several months, the feeds started to “veer into more highly sexist content,” especially on Facebook.
But it looks like the majority were memes about sitcoms, Star Wars, “dudebro” memes, Daily Mail, etc., news posts, while Instagram’s biggest “offense” seems to have been showing images of “scantily-clad women.”
The Guardian notes Meta explaining that its algorithms rank content based on interest – and it would appear that when all the algorithm knows about a “user” is that they are a “generic 24-year-old male” – that’s the sort of content it guesses they would want to see.
But, it seems that government officials in Australia would like those algorithms rewritten – to steer young men away from what some observers call “manosphere” and into more desirable areas of the internet.
The report puts it this way: there is “a $3.5 million, 3-year trial to counteract the harmful impacts of social media messaging targeting young men and boys.”
“We’re seeing misogynistic content pushed to young people through algorithms and recommender systems on social media. This is simply not good enough,” Michelle Rowland said.
She added that the government wants platforms to “take reasonable steps to ensure Australians can use their services in a safe manner, and to proactively minimize unlawful and harmful material and activity on their services.”
Although the Guardian’s “experiment” did not result in content condoning violence against women showing up in the dummy accounts’ feeds, Amanda Rishworth offered a dramatic take on the situation by adding that into the mix that was her reaction.
“Around 25% of teenage boys in Australia look up to social media personalities who perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes and condone violence against women – this is shocking,” she is quoted as saying.
