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”.
New proposed laws targeting online misinformation have been slammed as a “chilling assault” on the freedom of speech of Australians, with critics claiming the laws could capture “any difference of opinion”.
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.
Free Speech Union of Australia also slammed the legislation, telling SkyNews.com.au the legislation was an “attack on our freedoms”.
“Despite the outpouring of public concern last time around, the Government has still failed to address the key issues with it,” Free Speech Union of Australia Co-Director Dr Reuben Kirkham said.
Like the previous draft, the new laws would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to impose massive fines – up to 5 per cent of global revenue – on social media platforms that fail to adequately crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
ACMA will also be given new powers to approve enforceable industry codes for dealing with misinformation and disinformation, or make standards itself, if it deems platforms have failed to address the issue through self-regulation.
The bill appears to narrow the scope of what can be captured to content that is “verifiable as false, misleading or deceptive” and “reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm”.
The government has also responded to some criticism by excluding “reasonable dissemination of content for any academic, artistic, scientific or religious purpose”, removing the exemption for government-authorised content.
But according to Dr Kirkham, the revisions fail to protect free speech.
“How does anyone decide if the content contains information that is ‘reasonably verifiable as false, misleading or deceptive’ – it is as clear as mud. It also still gives ACMA extraordinary powers to make codes,” the Co-Director of Free Speech Union of Australia told SkyNews.com.au.
According to the an analysis by the IPA, there are still three fundamental flaws with the new legislation.
Chief among these flaws is that the new definition of ‘serious harm’ has been broadened and could now potentially capture “any difference of opinion”.
“The federal government has not listened to the concerns about free speech raised by mainstream Australians. Instead, they are… actually broadening the censorship powers of ACMA, such as introducing by stealth a change to the definition of ‘harm’ to include ‘vilification’,” Mr Storey said.
The analysis also found that due to its definition of ‘misinformation’, the bill would create “legal powers for politically biased fact-checkers to determine what is true and false”.
While the bill would also create an “unelected and unaccountable star chamber bureaucracy” with the power to launch investigations and hearings to ensure compliance with censorship guidelines.
“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,” the IPA’s Director of Law and Policy said.
“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.”
Minister Rowland said on Thursday that the Albanese government was “committed to keeping Australians safe online” that has the legislation would ensure “ACMA has powers it needs to hold digital platforms to account for misinformation and disinformation on their services.”
However the government faces an uphill battle to get the legislation through parliament.
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Thursday morning, shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said that while the opposition had not yet seen the legislation, if it “in any way resembles the first draft of their misinformation laws” then they would oppose it.
“Our starting point is extreme scepticism,” Senator Paterson said.
“Let’s remember that the first draft was opposed by the Human Rights Commission, civil liberties groups, religious groups, media organisations, the social media companies themselves. It was an utterly friendless bill.”
The Liberal Senator said what worried him was the bill reportedly included a requirement for social media companies to determine “what is true and what is false” and to decide what is and what is not censored.
“That’s a deeply disturbing thing because we know that in recent times they got those things wrong on many occasions. Australians legitimately held political beliefs should not be censored by either the government, or by foreign social media platforms,” Senator Paterson said.
“I think we’re going to get ourselves into a very dangerous state of affairs if we allow, for example, during an election campaign, a American or Chinese headquartered social media platform decide what Australians can and cannot hear from political candidates and political parties.
“We always have to have a strong bias for free speech. Australians have the right to hear competing arguments and to make up their own minds. And censoring them and censoring their legitimate sincerely held beliefs is not the answer.”
3 thoughts on “‘Attack on our freedoms’: Government’s revised online misinformation bill slammed as ‘chilling assault’ on free speech”
2 May, 2023
Twitter fulfilling more government censorship requests under Musk
Twitter has complied at least partially with 98.8 percent of takedown requests under Elon Musk’s ownership, data shows.
Corynne McSherry, legal director of the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the development was cause for concern.
“As Twitter’s own previous reports and actions show, government takedown requests are frequently legally flawed or improper, and even lawful requests may conflict with international freedom of expression principles,” McSherry told Al Jazeera.
“And while many have abandoned Twitter, it remains a powerful and important platform internationally, particularly for journalists and human rights defenders,” she said. “Further, if Twitter is complying so quickly with takedown requests, one has to wonder what other government requests Twitter is fulfilling without protest.”
The rise in government takedowns follows a series of shakeups Musk has undertaken at Twitter, including slashing the workforce by 80 percent to around 1,500 employees and axing the company’s entire human rights team.
Twitter has also shuttered many of its regional offices, including in India, where the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced sweeping measures to regulate the internet and social media.
Twitter has not published an internal transparency report on government removal requests since July, and data has instead been collected through automatic submissions from Twitter to the Lumen database.
Jyoti Panday, a researcher at the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said business concerns at Twitter appeared to be taking precedence over human rights.
“Elon came in and disbanded a lot of crucial teams that were spread out across the world,” Panday told Al Jazeera.
“Users have the right to be heard, and they are approaching the platform to say, ‘Can you put back our content? We can prove it’s not illegal and not unlawful content. I’m well within my rights,’ but those mechanisms that would be in place to judge … have been completely disbanded, and there’s no response she said. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfilling-more-government-censorship-requests-under-musk
UPDATE >
Information on the many topics relevant in this corrupted world is what I’ve been posting on X – I had only been on 12 days and another user complained and I am banned.
OMG !!! That’s it ! 13 September, 2024.
Your account is suspended
After careful review, we determined your account broke the X Rules. (how ? – because someone complained about my Information Posts !!! I don’t understand ! ).
Your account is permanently in read-only mode, which means you can’t post, Repost, or Like content. (*NOTE > I can’t even read any posts, as I can only see ‘ Your account is suspended*)
You won’t be able to create new accounts.
If you think we got this wrong, you can submit an appeal.
Unlock more posts by subscribing
You have reached the limit for seeing posts today. Subscribe to see more posts every day.
I HAVE APPEALED TWICE ALREADY ! Another User complained about my Information Posts and I am BANNED ! Aren’t we all supposed to be fighting against Censorship and Mr. Musk X leading the way ? ! This is worse than catastrophic for Freedom of Speech Globally when this happens as a result of complaint from another User ? Outrageous.
Same thing happened in April 2024 on Facebook – my page permanently disabled.
I will put this article in too in case your readers wish to copy it and use these 3 information comments.
‘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”.
READ MORE AT SKY NEWS
New proposed laws targeting online misinformation have been slammed as a “chilling assault” on the freedom of speech of Australians, with critics claiming the laws could capture “any difference of opinion”.
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.
Free Speech Union of Australia also slammed the legislation, telling SkyNews.com.au the legislation was an “attack on our freedoms”.
“Despite the outpouring of public concern last time around, the Government has still failed to address the key issues with it,” Free Speech Union of Australia Co-Director Dr Reuben Kirkham said.
Like the previous draft, the new laws would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to impose massive fines – up to 5 per cent of global revenue – on social media platforms that fail to adequately crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms. https://crazzfiles.com/attack-on-our-freedoms-governments-revised-online-misinformation-bill-slammed-as-chilling-assault-on-free-speech/
2 May, 2023
Twitter fulfilling more government censorship requests under Musk
Twitter has complied at least partially with 98.8 percent of takedown requests under Elon Musk’s ownership, data shows.
Corynne McSherry, legal director of the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the development was cause for concern.
“As Twitter’s own previous reports and actions show, government takedown requests are frequently legally flawed or improper, and even lawful requests may conflict with international freedom of expression principles,” McSherry told Al Jazeera.
“And while many have abandoned Twitter, it remains a powerful and important platform internationally, particularly for journalists and human rights defenders,” she said. “Further, if Twitter is complying so quickly with takedown requests, one has to wonder what other government requests Twitter is fulfilling without protest.”
The rise in government takedowns follows a series of shakeups Musk has undertaken at Twitter, including slashing the workforce by 80 percent to around 1,500 employees and axing the company’s entire human rights team.
Twitter has also shuttered many of its regional offices, including in India, where the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced sweeping measures to regulate the internet and social media.
Twitter has not published an internal transparency report on government removal requests since July, and data has instead been collected through automatic submissions from Twitter to the Lumen database.
Jyoti Panday, a researcher at the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said business concerns at Twitter appeared to be taking precedence over human rights.
“Elon came in and disbanded a lot of crucial teams that were spread out across the world,” Panday told Al Jazeera.
“Users have the right to be heard, and they are approaching the platform to say, ‘Can you put back our content? We can prove it’s not illegal and not unlawful content. I’m well within my rights,’ but those mechanisms that would be in place to judge … have been completely disbanded, and there’s no response she said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfilling-more-government-censorship-requests-under-musk
UPDATE >
Information on the many topics relevant in this corrupted world is what I’ve been posting on X – I had only been on 12 days and another user complained and I am banned.
OMG !!! That’s it ! 13 September, 2024.
Your account is suspended
After careful review, we determined your account broke the X Rules. (how ? – because someone complained about my Information Posts !!! I don’t understand ! ).
Your account is permanently in read-only mode, which means you can’t post, Repost, or Like content. (*NOTE > I can’t even read any posts, as I can only see ‘ Your account is suspended*)
You won’t be able to create new accounts.
If you think we got this wrong, you can submit an appeal.
Unlock more posts by subscribing
You have reached the limit for seeing posts today. Subscribe to see more posts every day.
I HAVE APPEALED TWICE ALREADY ! Another User complained about my Information Posts and I am BANNED ! Aren’t we all supposed to be fighting against Censorship and Mr. Musk X leading the way ? ! This is worse than catastrophic for Freedom of Speech Globally when this happens as a result of complaint from another User ? Outrageous.
Same thing happened in April 2024 on Facebook – my page permanently disabled.
I will put this article in too in case your readers wish to copy it and use these 3 information comments.
‘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”.
READ MORE AT SKY NEWS
New proposed laws targeting online misinformation have been slammed as a “chilling assault” on the freedom of speech of Australians, with critics claiming the laws could capture “any difference of opinion”.
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.
Free Speech Union of Australia also slammed the legislation, telling SkyNews.com.au the legislation was an “attack on our freedoms”.
“Despite the outpouring of public concern last time around, the Government has still failed to address the key issues with it,” Free Speech Union of Australia Co-Director Dr Reuben Kirkham said.
Like the previous draft, the new laws would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to impose massive fines – up to 5 per cent of global revenue – on social media platforms that fail to adequately crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
https://crazzfiles.com/attack-on-our-freedoms-governments-revised-online-misinformation-bill-slammed-as-chilling-assault-on-free-speech/