It appears the subaltern Australian mind is so brow-beaten that, like our American cousins, we are ready to give away our freedoms to would-be tyrants.
Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has warned Labor’s bid to crack down on online misinformation could “all go very wrong”, raising concerns over the outsourcing of censorship decisions to foreign-owned social media companies.
Professor Twomey said the bill, which will empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to fine tech giants for false content it deems harmful – risked creating “worse problems” by suppressing free speech and undermining democracy.
…Professor Twomey said the bill raised constitutional issues by capturing claims and opinions on political matters rather than just “verifiably false” information. “Then you’re right slap bang into political communication, and that’s where the thing will fall over,” she told a Senate hearing on Monday.
Trash the bill. To believe that a government so full of lies would impose an honest misinformation bill on the public is as laughable as it is terrifying.
The overreach is even worse in the bipartisan ‘blame the children”‘ social media bill:
Top children’s YouTubers say they will be forced out of a job if the Albanese government bans the online video platform for anyone under 16, a move that a senior minister says would likely involve exemptions and carve-outs.
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the Albanese government had not decided how it will enforce the ban, which will cover the likes of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X. It could require all social media users in Australia to share official identity documents to prove they are over 16 years old.
Mr Shorten spoke to The Australian Financial Review on the sidelines of the Tech Council of Australia’s National Tech Summit in Melbourne. He suggested there could be exemptions to the social media ban on educational grounds.
Carve-outs decided by whom? Canberra. This is a misinformation bill for children that blames them for using the most amazing resource humanity ever invented.
Why is Canberra blaming the kids for using social media when it will fail anyway? As my beautiful and well-adjusted twelve-year-old daughter laughed yesterday, “Dad, I’ve been twenty since I was five”.
If social media creates problems at school, then the schools need policies and processes to deal with it. Ditto parents at home.
This is an advanced form of woke meltdown in which teachers and parents are characterised as the victims rather than the perpetrators failing to contain their kids.
Finally, let’s not forget that the two bills are only underway as giant misinformation distractions from Albo’s catastrophic standards of living failures as we approach the election.
Australia has gone mad.
