Statement

Australia gets to choose its own feed

A statement from Brian Kay, founder of Present, on the United States Government's response to Australia's Digital Duty of Care consultation.

Port Macquarie, 24 September 2026

On 22 September the US Embassy in Canberra published the United States Government's response to Australia's draft Digital Duty of Care Bill. It objects to “forced chronological feeds or opt-in recommendation systems” and asks Australia to withdraw plans it says could lead to censorship.

I built Present myself in Port Macquarie, with my friends as beta testers. I disagree with the US on this.

My Feed, My Way is about choice. People can pick a feed of the accounts they follow, in order, or the one a company ranks for them. Nobody is forced to pick either, and companies can keep their algorithm. It doesn't touch what anyone can say.

What it does mean is the algorithm has to earn its place. If people can switch it off, companies have to make it good enough that people want to keep it. That's better for everyone, including the people who stick with it.

The algorithm the law is aimed at is the recommendation kind: posts from people you don't know, picked by whatever keeps you on the app. Present doesn't have one. It sorts posts by when they were taken, and brings an older post back up when someone adds a new message. That's essentially chronological, which I understand to be the spirit of the law. Present shows you what your friends are up to, then encourages you to put the phone down.

The US submission says part of its concern is the burden on American companies. The way I read it, the worry is that people will choose, and spend less time on those apps. That backs up what the Australian Government is saying.

I think a revolt against the algorithm is coming. People are sick of slop and content that never ends. The way I see it, the US is worried about more than Australia: once this law is here, other countries will see the benefits and follow, the same way they started following Australia's under-16 rules.

It's also a foreign government lobbying against an Australian law on behalf of its own companies. Australians get to decide the rules for services used in Australia.

If the law passes, the big platforms will offer a feed closer to Present's. I support it because it's better for everyone. Present will still be different: no targeted ads, ever, nothing built to keep you scrolling, and connections only go both ways, so nobody's performing for a crowd.

We want Present to meet the Duty of Care because we want to be good for the people on it, not because a law says we have to. Same with privacy: everyone on Present, wherever they live, gets the data rights European law gives Europeans. Australian law doesn't require that yet. I do it anyway.

Brian KayFounder, PresentPort Macquarie, NSW