Australia passed legislation forcing social media companies to add a button that turns off algorithmic feeds. Users can now toggle to chronological feeds. The government calls this a win for consumer choice.
The algorithm showed you content you engaged with. You engaged with rage bait and ex-girlfriend vacation photos and conspiracy theories about seed oils. The algorithm learned. It gave you more. You hated this. You blamed Mark Zuckerberg for your broken limbic system.
Now you get a button. Press it. Watch your feed become a sewage pipe of every single thing every person you follow posts in real time. Your college roommate's baby photos. Your aunt's minion memes. Seventeen posts from that guy you met at a conference in 2019 who will not stop sharing AI-generated motivational quotes about disruption. This is what you asked for.
The chronological feed died because nobody wanted it. Facebook offered it for years. Twitter kept it available. Users clicked back to algorithmic within hours. Turns out people like the algorithm. They just hate admitting they like the algorithm.
Australia thinks Big Tech will suffer from this. Big Tech will add the button. Nobody will use it. The 4% who do use it will switch back within a week and write long posts about how they tried to quit the algorithm but the chronological feed made them realize all their friends are boring.
The Australian government just mandated a placebo button so voters can feel like they struck a blow against Silicon Valley while still getting their parasocial relationship with influencers who sell collagen powder.
Tech stocks will not move on this news. Neither will your portfolio. But at least you can toggle to chronological and pretend you wanted to see Craig from high school post about his Peloton for the ninth time this week.
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