Essay by Eric Worrall
As Australia approaches its next cycle of state and federal elections, the radical Aussie Federal Government is pushing laws which could silence media criticism of their key policy positions.
‘Attack on our freedoms’: Government’s revised online misinformation bill slammed as ‘chilling assault’ on free speech
Labor’s new online misinformation bill has been slammed as a “chilling assault” on freedom of speech, with critics claiming the government’s definition of “serious harm” could capture “any difference of opinion”.
Patrick Hannaford Digital Reporter
4 min read
September 12, 2024 – 5:00PM…
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland introduced the legislation to Parliament on Thursday, claiming misinformation and disinformation pose a “serious threat” to Australian’s “safety and wellbeing” as well as “our democracy, society and economy”.
The Albanese government was forced to abandon a previous draft version of the laws after they were widely condemned by everyone from media organisations and tech companies to civil liberties groups and even the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Minister Rowland said the government had listened to the feedback and the new legislation had been revised to “carefully balance the public interest in combatting seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation with the freedom of expression that is so fundamental to our democracy”.
But critics are already lining up to attack the bill, with the Institute of Public Affairs describing the legislation as “the single biggest attack on freedom of speech in Australia’s peacetime history”.
“Misinformation legislation introduced into federal parliament today represents a chilling assault on every Australian’s right to free speech. The new Bill broadens provisions to censor speech, which even the government’s fatally flawed first draft did not include,” said John Storey, the Director of Law and Policy at the IPA.
…
Read more: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/attack-on-our-freedoms-governments-revised-online-misinformation-bill-slammed-as-chilling-assault-on-free-speech/news-story/03f202bf41f4255fd0f7c4b4c05682fe
The Institute of Public Affairs has this to say about the new laws.
Revised Misinformation Laws Amp Up Assault On Free Speech
Written by: John Storey
12 September 2024“Misinformation legislation introduced into federal parliament today represents a chilling assault on every Australian’s right to free speech. The new Bill broadens provisions to censor speech, which even the government’s fatally flawed first draft did not include,” said John Storey, Director of Law and Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs.
The revised Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 grants the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) enormous power to fine social media companies if they are found to have failed to properly censor ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’. The new Bill contains three fundamental flaws:
- A revised definition of ‘misinformation’ to mean content that is ‘verifiable as false, misleading or deceptive’ would create legal powers for politically biased fact-checkers to determine what is true and false (Clauses 13(1) and 13(2)).
- It creates an unelected and unaccountable star chamber bureaucracy with the power to launch investigations and hearings to ensure compliance with censorship guidelines that can target mainstream Australians (Schedule 2, Clause 2).
- A new definition of ‘serious harm’ is even broader than the first bill and can potentially capture any difference of opinion (Clause 14).
“The government’s proposed ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ laws are the single biggest attack on freedom of speech in Australia’s peacetime history, and have no place in a liberal democracy such as Australia,” said Mr Storey.
“The big tech companies will become the censorship and enforcement arm of the federal government to shut down debate and speech that it disagrees with.”
“Under these laws even the truth will be no defence. If a citizen were to disseminate information which was factually true, but ACMA or a fact checker labelled it ‘misleading’ or ‘deceptive’ because it ‘lacked context’, then that information would fall within the scope of these laws,” said Mr Storey.
The revised legislation has not taken into account the deep concern of many mainstream Australians who can now be targeted by an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy for prosecution for simply stating genuinely held opinions online.
“The federal government has not listened to the concerns about free speech raised by mainstream Australians. Instead, they are pandering to its political base by actually broadening the censorship powers of ACMA, such as introducing by stealth a change to the definition of ‘harm’ to include ‘vilification’,” said Mr Storey.
Previous research by the Institute of Public Affairs found that fact-checking organisations were systematically biased and targeted the ‘No’ campaign in the Voice to Parliament referendum. That research found
- So-called ‘fact-checkers’ published 187 fact checking articles related to the Voice – 170 of these assessments, or 91%, targeted claims of those who supported the No case.
- Almost every example supporting the No case was assessed to be false. 99% per cent of assessed claims supporting the No case were deemed ‘false’, whereas only 59% of the comparatively few claims assessed supporting the Yes case were deemed ‘false’.
To download the IPA’s previous research click here.
Read more: https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/media-releases/revised-misinformation-laws-amp-up-assault-on-free-speech
The IPA article (above) suggests individuals as well as organisations could be targeted.
The following submission from the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) and the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) makes it very clear that climate skepticism is in the firing line of the new disinformation laws. If this legislation is passed, going by this submission Australia’s premier scientific bodies will push for anyone who publicly disagrees with their alarmist stance on climate change and the Great Barrier Reef to be silenced using the new laws. They even slipped in a reference to President Trump (top of Page 4).
I’m not sure exactly what Anthony would do with a subpoena from the Australian government to cease and desist publishing climate “disinformation”, and to provide the full contact details of all authors, but I’m guessing it would make for a fun WUWT article.
Our favourite reef rebel Peter Ridd has started producing a series of videos on Australia’s woke scientific institutions and other interesting topics, well worth watching, in my opinion demonstrating why Australia’s science institutes are unfit to be gatekeepers of scientific truth. It was one of Peter’s videos which alerted me to the extremist submission above.
Elon Musk, who has very much been in the firing line for standing up to the Australian Government and winning, has just one word for this latest push to suppress freedom of expression.
As WUWT has previously shown, what is happening in Australia is part of a bigger picture. Across the world, radical left wing politicians appear to be acting simultaneously to silence opposition to their policies.
In South America and Europe, freedom is being eroded by increasingly punitive laws aimed at silencing critics of left wing policies.
Musk’s X banned in Brazil after disinformation row
Could Elon Musk actually be arrested and X cancelled?
The USA is not immune to this worldwide radical attempt by governments to impose censorship of “disinformation”.
The USA has strong protections against the Federal Government coercing public speech, but this has not stopped the European Union from allegedly applying indirect coercion to censor people in the United States – possibly at the behest of the Biden Administration.
In at least one case the Federal Government has been accused of acting directly to censor Americans – in my opinion a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.
Zuckerberg says the White House pressured Facebook to ‘censor’ some COVID-19 content during the pandemic
Politics Aug 27, 2024 11:26 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic and vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again.
WATCH: Meta’s Nick Clegg on the challenges of AI content and misinformation
In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg alleges that the officials, including those from the White House, “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to take down “certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire.”
…
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/zuckerberg-says-the-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-some-covid-19-content-during-the-pandemic
The US Constitution is an inspiration to the world, an effort by some very clever people to try to safeguard the freedom they paid for with blood for future generations. But your Federal Government just allegedly got away with a flagrant breaches of the First Amendment. No politician or staffer who allegedly committed these acts has faced any serious legal consequences for their actions. The people responsible for these alleged violations of the constitution, so far have gotten away with their alleged crimes.
Unless you elect politicians who uphold and protect the laws and constitution of the United States, what is happening in Australia right now could easily happen to the USA, regardless of the protections enshrined in the US Constitution. Unless wrongdoers face genuine legal consequences for violating the constitution, those who violate the constitution will feel safe to continue violating the constitution whenever convenient. The constitution is a document – it needs the support of politicians, attorneys, a judiciary and a people who believe in and work to uphold the safeguards in the US Constitution to make it work.
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And don’t complain about the railcars either. Arbeit macht frei.
To be followed by “Für Ihre Sicherheit”
Or the one size fits all clothing.
The US Supreme Court choked with Missouri v Biden, AKA Missouri v Murthy. Disposing of the case on the grounds of “standing” looked very much like the old “political question doctrine” used to excuse other civil rights violations before the 1960’s.
It’s a pretty tough balancing act, Tom. How does SCOTUS effectively allow the Feds to do anything they want to us while maintaining the fiction that we’re the land of the free, etc.
I am betting the next government to introduce this draconian measure will be, without doubt, the UK.
BTW – WHO decides what is misinformation or disinformation?
That is the most-asked question in all the comments at the Sky News Australia story.
Government approved “experts”, like the people who wrote the submission PDF above.
An expert is someone who has made every possible mistake in a narrow field.
Niels Bohr.
Speaking of ‘experts’, have Nick or any of his acolytes weighed in on this issue?
It will be the ones who decide what constitutes evidence as well.
If the UK does it- you can be Wokeachusetts will- if not sooner.
Same playbook every time. Try it out down under and if it flies they inflict it on the UK.
Simples. Anything that’s against any government policy, action, press release, etc, ad infinitum.
Should read ‘any collectivist government policy’.
There is a presumption that citizens are not smart enough to sort out what’s true and what’s false. So these laws are an assault on people’s intelligence as well.
“WHO decides what is misinformation or disinformation?”
The World health Organization, which is in the pocket of the Chinese Communist Regime.
Tough kazoobies baby.
Well this could turn into a popcorn event.
What happens when one or a group group of academics publish a paper which gets relied upon by government to institute policy & regulations, and another academic or group of academics openly, publicly publish another paper that claims the first paper is bullshit?
Say if the first paper was promoted by the Australian Climate Change Authority https://www.climatechangeauthority.gov.au/about-cca and the contrary paper was promoted by say the Australian Mining and Energy Union https://meu.org.au/about-us/ ?
Then the first academics charged the second second academics with “misinformation / disinformation” under the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024.
Would minister for communications Michelle Rowlands have to dress up as Wise King Solomon to adjudicate, and threaten to cut this baby in half to see who to believe?
(Dunno, maybe she’s actually looking forward to getting into a bit of dress-up action?)
Yep. Could get messy!
Then, intelligence officers will have to judge.
There are none of those anywhere near government !!
In real life, heatwaves. The official global chant is that heatwaves are getting hotter, longer and more frequent. Globally, reliance is from a number of papers by mainly a clique of female academics from big East coast Australian universities, authors like Lewis, Perkins-Kifkpatrick. Essentially all of these papers ignore data before year 1950.
Scenario. I submit to some public forum an examination of heatwave data going back to 1860. This includes the worst Aussie heatwave, Bourke 1896, the dustbowl US 1930s and more. Includes historic data from Australia’s 6 State capital cities that fail to show the “getting hotter”.
Is my effort disinformation or misinformation?
(This is real information, not a “what if?” scenario.)
Geoff S
Wrongthink has progressed to thoughtcrime. Thinkpol will soon arrive and render you to the Ministry of Love. Embrace Oligarchical Collectivism or become an unperson.
The way to deal with this is with extreme prejudice (no not that one). You praise them in the most obviously sarcastic and unctuous way possible, and provide good examples from the failed fascists states, but all of the time, praising their insight and erudition as a means of reining in, and killing the economy.
The Brits (pre 1900) used nursery rhymes, riddles, jokes, and cartoons, to lampoon the great and good, and that’s what the brighter Aussies should do. Do disrespectful acrostics with the PMs name and others, of his ministers. Faint praise and larding on the sarcasm works wonders on these thin skinned jerks. Pull their pants down at every turn, but always with humour and sarcasm. Orwell and Wilde and Swift, and Cruikshank, and even Lewis Carroll, knew how to do it to make the Bas….s squirm.
Time for torches and pitchforks! Like the French revolution, and the sooner the better!
Once it starts going this way, you know what eventually follows!
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” – Isaac Asimov
civil disobedience works- most of the time
Only in very liberal societies. China, Iran, Russia, North Korea it is a quick trip to the gulag and organ harvesting.
Think BLM, !
I like Asimov, but I grew up in a place where violence was how you got to keep your lunch money.
Govt is the second refuge of the incompetent.
Incompetents do not always use acts of violence as a final refuge. Sometimes they just retire with a govt pension.
DonM, government is the source of violence I had in mind when I posted the quote.
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – George Washington
It is already happening on a global scale.
I have had demonstrably true comments removed from certain discussions simply because they did not fit the fashionable narrative.
Who hasn’t?
tell us where
here?
It used to be that the left controlled messaging via ‘control’ of MSM channels. That no longer works in the internet era. So they are removing the mask and going directly after the contrary messengers the new channels. X in Brazil is both.
Don’t think this will fly in Australia any more than the last proposal. If it somehow does, shame on the Aussies who voted for this regime.
This will fall apart when some bright spark applies the law to political electioneering advertising.
There’ll be exemptions for the left’s truthiness
Spot on Rud re the internet superseding the MSM. However, unless there is immediate loud public scrutiny applied to this there is a high chance that it will fly because we have the Greens and the highly ignorant Teals controlling our parliament. It would need a big swing to the right to get both houses of parliament to repeal the legislation if it became law.
Beer, footie and weed should keep them quiescent.
One of the major champions of free speech is Johnathan Turley who recently posted on his blog about the Australian situation.
When censorship is permitted, there must be a person or group who DICTATES what is allowed. THE PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER IN CHARGE OF THEIR LIVES AND THEIR NATION!
That is the first, & MAIN, step in a totalitarian dictatorship. The people are stripped of their rights to publicly point out government overreach, misconduct, and even government atrocities. They are no longer free to publicly object to the hijacking of THEIR government OF & FOR the people into a government OVER the people. The creeping censorship and heavily REDACTED “disclosures” which are, in fact, ludicrous shams that only mock our attempts to monitor “our” government, are huge Red Flags that our government is in transition into one that is OVER the people and will soon own them.”
Research democide and its signs.
Governments make lots of mistakes, they should be glad someone is telling them and others that they aren’t doing the best thing for the country.
Would stating publicly that policies pursuing ‘net zero’ by mandating weather and diurnal dependent low concentrated inefficient energy sources to be insane be defined as ‘climate denial’⸮
Not sure, but someone would probably make a complaint. Even in cases without merit, the process would be the punishment.
True, that’s how it works.
I live in South Australia. I have written to my federal MP to demand that this hideous legislation be withdrawn. Please, every single Australian reading this should do the same, even the climate activists, because it will blow back against everyone eventually. If anything is going to cause more social division in Oz, it is this ugly control mechanism which is being introduced because the government can’t win its arguments on factual and logical grounds and because it can’t cope with criticism. FFS, it is the misinformation that teases out the real truths eventually. Misinformation is a necessity!
Didn’t Australia disarm it’s citizens a number of years ago?
I wonder why?
They convinced people in Australia to disarm the same way they convinced Brits to disarm – by portraying people who wanted to keep their guns as violent rednecks or white supremacists, and dissing anyone who disagreed as being pro-violence, like those uncivilised Americans.
You guys should take a closer look at the people you call “allies”, the portrayal of Americans, particularly right wing Americans, is very negative in the Aussie and British media and in society in general.
Stuff like this really makes me mad. Michelle Rowland and everyone like her are cowards. If they were half as smart as they think they are they would challenge those they accuse of disinformation/misinformation to publicly debate the issue in question. If the mongrels are as smart as they think they are it should be no problem to defeat their opponents and shame them into withdrawing their misinformation/disinformation. The reason the mongrels don’t do it is because they know they are the ones who will be whipped and shamed for their arrogance and dishonesty. The only way they can prevail is by censorship like that used in Nazi Germany and the USSR. Cowards.
“Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic and vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again.” He and his company were active participants and can be counted on to censor again given the opportunity.
Restricting public speech to match the ruling elites’ propaganda is a feature of every socialist revolution. Every. Single. One. I wonder why.
And every country that penalizes speech critical of government propaganda is no longer free. Every. Single. One. Looking at you, UK, Australia, Netherlands, and others run by leftists.
You cannot outlaw “misinformation” without setting up “The Ministry of Truth.”
IMHO the only proper way to counter misinformation and disinformation is to have a really good education system and a free press / media. So yeah we are stuffed.
Is the current crop of politicians in OZ descendants of the original colonists? You know, the ones sent to the prison there way back when cuz they didn’t want to deal with them in the UK. Just askin’.
What is not widely known is there were actually two groups of colonists who settled Australia, the convicts everyone knows about, and the disgraced sons of rich families who had done something so outrageously disgusting they could never again show their face in any civilised part of the empire. It is the descendants of the second group who now run the country.
the “remittance” men?
This is another sign of the West in decline as their lousy leaders, lazy and dumb voters, science, economic and military decisions are sinking them into an immoral morass as their inability to be rational continues on its downward spiral.
The political corruption, stupidity and Greed are preventing them from resetting themselves thus the crash is currently inevitable.
Collapse is inevitable but it’s still worth fighting to delay it a little. Every minute of peace we can seize is a minute we don’t have to watch our loved ones brutalised or crying with despair.
“Control what people can say and you control what they think.” – unknown
I don’t know if Orwell actually said it that way, but that’s a good summary of Newspeak and its purpose.
Information is the enemy of every dictator. Those who seek to limit the availability of information are dictators, period
Nah we gotta crack down on the great threats to democracy and the corporate media giving them a free ride to burn the Reichstag and enslave us all-
Corporate media keeps hiding the truth about madman Donald Trump | Opinion (msn.com)
Only saviour Kamala and Co stand between the mad fascist and life liberty and freedom of deplorables to join BLM XR Just Stop Oil and the latest lawfare or assassination attempt to prevent the rollout of utopia.