Mitchell Unlimited S01E10 - Mike Burgess

Now, Cam, this is your patch.

Digital duty of care.

You live on social media.

Elbow's trying to look after you.

Right or wrong? It's both, unfortunately.

I think the idea of having an algorithm that you can turn off is good, theoretically.

But the algorithm by itself isn't bad.

Come back a sec.

What's an algorithm?

So social media feed you information depending on what you're looking at and for how long.

So if you are watching us interact, for example, and you watch it for a long time, the algorithm says, oh, this is the sort of content Neil likes.

I'm going to find more content like this and give it to Neil.

So we can sell more ads.

To keep you using the app for longer.

Okay.

So the federal government has said it's dangerous, it's feeding people bad gear, right? They want to control it.

Is that right? Yes.

This is the digital duty of care.

That's what they're saying.

My way, my feed, my

way.

So what are they going to do? Well, that's where it starts to get a little bit messy because theoretically it's good.

The first thing they're saying, my feed, my way, means that you turn the algorithm off so the only things you see online are from people that you follow.

The thing is, that already exists on Instagram.

There's a single button that you press and the algorithm disappears.