Election 2026: Labour promise to enforce new conditions on social media companies

Labour says it would make social media companies give users the option to have a personalised feed or switch to only see posts from people and accounts they follow.

Many social media platforms already allow users to choose between a feed only showing accounts that the user follows or a feed that promotes recommended posts the algorithm believes the user will be interested in.

“The algorithms deciding what we see are designed to keeping us scrolling, but that’s not always what Kiwis want,” Labour science, technology and innovation spokesman Reuben Davidson says.

“You might like your recommended feed, and that’s fine, but you should have the choice to switch to seeing only posts from people and accounts you follow.”It’s unclear how Labour would force social media companies to provide this option if their platforms don’t already allow for it.

The measure is part of a policy being released today by Labour that it says will make it safer for New Zealanders online.

Much of the policy is a re-announcement of the current Government policy/actions or what Labour has already pledged to do in response.

This includes banning social media for under-16s. Labour says it would get the current legislation through its first readying and to a select committee within the first 100 days, with stronger privacy safeguards on age checks.

The party also wants a “Digital Duty of Care” law that it says will put basic legal responsibilities on the companies that run online services.

That includes “stronger protections for under-18s against harmful content, bullying and design features that encourage excessive use or damage self-esteem" and “stronger protection against deepfake abuse, including non-consensual sexual images and powers to take down harmful ‘nudify’ apps and sites”.

“Platforms will have to identify risks, show what they are doing to keep people safe and take action when things go wrong.”