“#FixOurFeeds, the campaign widely credited with pushing the federal government to adopt a digital duty of care model has received millions of dollars from the federal government. The Prime Minister claims the digital duty of care is a bottom-up movement, when it is clearly astroturfed by his own government,” said Jordan Abou-Zeid, Research Assistant at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Analysis of filings with the Australian Charities and Non-for-profits Commission has revealed that Teach Us Consent, the parent organisation of the #FixOurFeeds campaign received $2,670,156 in government funding across the 2024 and 2025 financial years. Some 86% of its revenue comes from government.
At a press conference unveiling the Digital Duty of Care, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “I do want to give credit to the organisations who are represented here because this is an example of change from the bottom-up. My government listening and acting.”
“An unpopular government, seeking to alter the means of online communication in their favour whilst funding NGOs to imply grassroots public support shows the digital duty of care is nothing but a cynical political exercise,” said Mr Abou-Zeid.
A new IPA research note, authored by Dr Andrew Bushnell and released this week, analyses the Digital Duty of Care concept and identifies five reasons it will enable government censorship of the internet:
- The meaning of “serious harms” is vague, subjective, and will expand over time.
- The duty to eliminate intangible harms will allow the government to smuggle its abandoned misinformation laws in through the backdoor.
- The wide and uncertain scope of the duty will incentivise over-compliance from regulated companies.
- Compliance with the digital duty of care will require increased surveillance of internet users.
- The duty will be enforced by an unaccountable Office of the eSafety Commissioner.
Download the research here.
