Photo: SUU
The Orwellian push rears its ugly head.
THOUGHTCRIME BILL IS BACK
The federal government has reintroduced their controversial Thoughtcrime Bill, designed to ‘combat the dangers posed by misinformation and disinformation’ in the digital age.
As part of the new crackdown proposal, big tech is being threatened with significant fines.
The legislation would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) new powers to demand social platforms keep records on ‘harmful content’, and hand them over.
According to the government press release: “The bill will empower the ACMA to review the effectiveness of digital platform systems and processes and will improve transparency about measures platforms have in place to protect Australians from mis and disinformation.”
Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, says some “75 per cent of Australians” are ‘concerned about the harmful impacts of misinformation and disinformation’.
“Digital platforms can also serve as a vehicle for the spread of misleading or false information that is seriously harmful to Australians. The rapid spread of seriously harmful mis and disinformation poses a significant challenge to the functioning of societies.”
She highlighted “the spread of false information” surrounding the Bondi Junction stabbing attack, and a stabbing incident in Southport in the U.K, as “alarming”.
Critics of the bill have lashed out with concerns over making social media companies the arbiters of truth, a nightmare we already saw with government-ordered COVID censorship.
Independent Senator, David Pocock, says he’s concerned the government is treading into uncharted territory.
“In Australia, without a human rights act or some sort of Bill of Rights that enshrines freedom of expression, we have to tread carefully when we start talking about policing misinformation and people’s views. I’m concerned that this legislation is essentially putting the onus on social media companies to deal with this.
I don’t think there’s a lot of trust in those social media companies at the moment.”
Rowland says the bill has ‘carefully calibrated definitions of serious harms that aligns with Australia’s human rights obligations’.
“Digital platforms may be subject to civil penalties of up to five percent of global turnover for breaches of a standard and up to two percent for codes. These penalties are high. However, they may be necessary in response to egregious and systematic breaches and failure to act.”
But just what type of content is considered ‘harmful’?
Others have slammed the bill as a fundamental attack on Western freedoms, including from Elon Musk, who called the Australian government “fascists” in response.
Australia: once again making international headlines for all the wrong reasons.
These laws have come after the draft bill was released last year and ultimately ended up rejected due to backlash, as covered here on TOTT News.
But, as always, those pulling the strings will get their plans through one way or another, and said they would be back again in 2024.
Now, in 2024, the battle for free speech, and ultimately thought, re-ignites again.
BACK AGAIN, AS EXPECTED
We told you it would be back, and here we are again. Yet another moment where the fundamentals of Western democratic values are at risk again, right after many social media heads like Musk and Zuckerberg openly admit COVID censorship was ‘wrong’.
Now it seems they won’t have a choice but to continue to police ‘misinformation’, despite a relaxation on censoring subjects like medical questioning in the time since the ‘pandemic’ ended.
Let’s recap how we ended up in this position, for those who may not be aware.
The push for this legislation began in March 2022, when the government announced plans to introduce news laws that would ‘combat online misinformation’.
After the election, Labor would continue the moves of the former Coalition government (highlighting the illusion of ‘government’, introducing the draft bill to the dismay of any free thinker in this country.
But the backlash was significant at the time.
At the time, the Australian Human Rights Commission said the misinformation bill would actually risk the freedoms it was supposedly aiming to protect.
In November last year, the Albanese government announced they would be overhauling the original draft bill, following widespread opposition to the move.
The government announced a delay in presenting the legislation to parliament until “sometime in 2024”, as they “adjusted their strategy” to ‘accommodate for concerns’.
The initial bill wasn’t successful, but they were able to achieve some groundwork.
Two mandatory standards aimed at child safety were released by the regulator last year, in which providers should “detect and remove child-abuse material and pro-terror material where technically feasible” – as well as “disrupt and deter new material of that nature”.
Apple warned the proposal to force tech companies to scan cloud and messaging services for child-abuse material risks was “…undermining fundamental privacy and security protections” and “…could lead to mass surveillance with worldwide repercussions“.
And it doesn’t just end with social media.
The federal government says it is also introducing new separate legislation to outlaw what’s known as ‘doxing’ – where people who maliciously publish personal details about someone online, could face a jail sentence of up to seven years.
Now, with this law, the gates of a private-less future will be well and truly open.
Australia has positioned itself as a ‘world leader’ on the front to ‘fight disinformation’, with our e-Commissioner attending Davos 2023 and our pledge to ‘reclaim the internet’.
Here in Queensland, we have just seen the elevation of a similar thoughtcrime bill that is aimed at ‘preventing vilification’ online, carrying on from the horrors of 18C.
Will the government finally succeed with their vision for a modern age Thought Police written in law?
And if so, where does this lead as the definitions and scope become more broadened over time?
I’ll leave you with this:
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So how do they prove it is misinformation/disinformation, new words we only just recently discovered and I am guessing many people are still confused about these words and how and who decides what is misinformation/disinformation??
The biggest perpetrators of disinformation and Mali formation (truly it’s all just information!!) is your Givt and the mainstream professional lying media. So these laws will shut them down? GREAT! 😊
If they’re back again – then so are we and we double down and push back harder! It’s up to you.
My comment is not about me, but that those who make the decision about what is dis and what is mis- information, it depends on opinion of those being paid by who they are being paid by and not based on facts and science. Even the facts and science can be made up or made to sound like something else.
When you start changing and making it law that certain words can no longer be used even in ordinary conversation, after all we speak because we communicate. Once you can end communication, then you are into George Orwell’s 1984; where the dictionary gets thinner and thinner and thinner and then there is newspeak you see, the new terminology to use, which will only convey what the elite want it to convey. And then too you can have it where certain words are missing! Words that you need to use in order to describe actual reality, is gone! And as I was saying with the dictionary getting thinner and thinner too and full of newspeak, it becomes impossible for anyone to ferment revolution; because nobody can understand the other person! There’s no words to express it, you can’t express anything on things that actually matter, isn’t that interesting. So it’s no coincidence that you have these new censorship departments controlling what you say, because after all, what you say is only a reflection of what you think, thoughtcrime, thoughtcrime. And now you have speechcrime, and so on and so on and so on. You can’t ever really believe that you live in a free society when powers at the top are completely serious in what they are doing and what they intend to do with speech and the curtailing of speech. Even innocent questions asked by children on certain topics, or adults. Because we are curious creatures us humans are, our mind thrives on learning new things and when that is curtailed, then your mind is imprisoned, you’re imprisoned and you can’t ever say you live in a free society, it’s a travesty, it’s beyond a joke, a joke which you can laugh at!
Exactly Nathan. People cannot even make jokes, say how they feel even if it is up for debate, that no longer exists, got to toe the line as they say, don’t be the odd one out, follow the crowd, be popular, don’t be seen as “trouble”, yep curb that individuality, keep the herd in the pen.
The only misinformation or disinformation comes from the Government and all there proxies including Israel with Zionism they control MSM and History in schools its why children are brainwashed on the very first day about Heliocentrism and Man landing on the Moon also WW2 with Hitler. Its the reason why History is written by the winners in wars. How about 911 more evidence that proves that no planes were hijacked.
Could this if this bill gets passed this time around could also include Internet Service Providers not sure though.
Can you really expect Ellon Musk cave in to this bill its the reason why Twitter now X exists so Freedom of Speech does live on. Something that we are very good at when comes to the TV or even Radio is that something don’t like just change the channel or station the same goes with Tweets on X in our Notification timeline ignore those don’t want to read also includes even Tweets or comments on those tweets we can just swipe up.
Yes it will be the Gov who decides what must not be said and be said. Brazil has banned X, can easily be done in any country. The global elites are going to do all they can to stop free speech, unless of course it suits their agenda, like destroying communities and the family unit.
I wouldn’t expect anything less from a government like this, and the other “side” is little better. Here is a great description of Australia’s oligarchy from Aristotle:
https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/spQ4CVARMkH6Kj4LSGfGCEOsMK?domain=youtu.be
Never ever thought something like this would happen in Australia.