The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia is urging the government to take a step back and consider the potential impact on small businesses before making any changes to social media algorithms.
The proposed "My Feed, My Way" reforms are meant to improve online safety and give Australians more control over their online experience. COSBOA CEO Skye Cappuccio says the organisation backs those aims, but wants the flow-on effects for small business properly understood first.
"For many small businesses, social media and digital platforms are how new customers find them. A café, retailer, tradesperson or service provider may not have a large marketing budget or in-house digital team. Their ability to appear in a customer's feed, search results or recommendations can be central to how they attract business," Cappuccio said.
She said algorithmic reach changes could significantly affect how small businesses are found by new customers, and that the impact on visibility, customer acquisition and revenue needs to be understood before a final model is settled.
What COSBOA wants before sign-off
COSBOA is reviewing the exposure draft and consulting its members as it prepares a formal response. Cappuccio said small business needs to be genuinely consulted throughout the process, including as the detailed mechanisms are worked out, and that comprehensive modelling of potential impacts, including unintended consequences for visibility and business continuity, needs to happen before the final model is locked in.
The over-enforcement risk
Cappuccio also raised concerns about the broader Digital Duty of Care, noting that many small businesses rely on digital platforms not just for marketing but as a front door to their business. Her concern is that platforms responding to new obligations could resort to blunt enforcement that wrongly suspends, restricts or de-ranks legitimate small businesses.
"If a small business is wrongly caught by platform enforcement, there must be a practical and accessible pathway to have the issue resolved quickly," she said.
Cappuccio said online safety is an important objective, but the task is to deliver it without inadvertently making it harder for small businesses to reach customers and operate online.