I got the link to the post by Alison Bevege from Rebekah Barnett’s blog, and she shows what pure evil we face, that will lead to internet censorship that will cripple sites like this one, where dissent news and commentary occurs. The government is aiming to change the law so that the existing social media companies, and no doubt, the wider internet, will censor our content on behalf of the government’s broadcast regulator Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which will set formulate the rules, and we can be sure that these new rules will be draconian. The full details are given by Bevege below, but for those who want a concise summary, the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 will engage in decentralised censorship by enforcing “digital platform standards” and “industry codes” on “misinformation and disinformation” with massive fines to social media companies. ACMA will define “truth” and “misinformation” and register industry codes to force Big Tech companies so that the only information available is exactly what the government is pushing. So, all of the posts made today about new research showing the dangers of the Covid vaxxes, for example, even though there is academic research behind, it gets censored since it is contrary to the government line. Coverage of the French riots, even the Voice No case could also get censored.
This is truly the worst assault upon free speech in Australia; even American commentators are alarmed about this. It must be strongly opposed, so once more tell everyone in your circle about it, information to bring you up to speed below, and contact MPs, and freedom movement pollies, like Pauline Hanson, for a start.