Large online platforms now play a central role in Australian public debate.

YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and other major platforms are no longer just entertainment websites. They are part of the infrastructure through which Australians learn about politics, discuss public issues, organise campaigns, and form opinions.

That power must come with accountability.

Right now, major platforms can quietly restrict, demote, demonetise, de-recommend, or withhold ordinary distribution from lawful political content without clearly telling creators what happened, why it happened, or how to meaningfully appeal.

That is a serious democratic problem.

I recently released six carefully researched YouTube videos in rapid succession. Five of them appeared to receive little or no ordinary algorithmic distribution. It's not that the videos were unpopular. Rather, they were never meaningfully tested with audiences at all.

Here is a screenshot illustrating the issue:

This petition is not about guaranteeing views, asking for money, seeking special treatment, or removing moderation.

It is about one basic democratic safeguard:

Major digital platforms should not be able to quietly restrict lawful political content without notice, reasons, records, and a real appeal process.

When a platform blocks, demotes, restricts, labels, suppresses, or excludes lawful political content from recommendation systems, Australians deserve transparency.

Australia should introduce laws requiring very large digital platforms to:

1. Notify creators when lawful political, journalistic, educational, or public-interest content is restricted, demoted, excluded from recommendation systems, or otherwise denied ordinary distribution.
2. Give clear reasons for the restriction, including whether it was caused by automation, human review, misinformation labels, sensitive-topic labels, advertiser-suitability systems, trust and safety classifiers, or channel-level signals.
3. Provide a meaningful appeal process reviewed by a human, not only a generic automated response.
4. Preserve records of significant moderation and recommendation decisions so creators, regulators, courts, and independent auditors can examine what happened.

This is not a demand that platforms promote harmful content, or remove moderation.

Platforms can and should act against genuine abuse, threats, harassment, fraud, spam, and unlawful material.

But when platforms exercise power over lawful political expression, that power should not be hidden behind opaque algorithms and unexplained decisions.

Australians deserve to know when lawful political speech is being restricted, why it is being restricted, and how that decision can be challenged.

Please sign this petition calling on the Australian Parliament to introduce strong transparency and accountability laws for major digital platforms, so lawful political and public-interest content cannot be quietly suppressed without notice, reasons, records, and a real right of appeal.

Addendum

If you're wondering whether the suppressed videos were somehow questionable, here's an example of such a video: Opposition Politician's House Demolished In India. I submit that this was not fringe or abusive content. It was a brief but carefully researched public-interest video about state power, political retaliation, and property rights, and contained citations to credible sources. Just think about how much legitimate speech and advocacy is getting silenced by foreign media platforms and the hidden algorithms that influence which voices and viewpoints get heard, and which don't. I believe the public deserves to know how often this is happening, why it is happening, and that ordinary people deserve safeguards to prevent their lawful political speech from being silently throttled by private platform systems without explanation or appeal.