2 April 2022
Now it’s ScoMo’s Ministry of Truth
Why are the Liberals silencing free speech? The Morrison government’s plans to give regulators new powers to crack down on online speech is an authoritarian and dangerous policy that could just as easily have come from a Labor/Greens government. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher recently announced the federal government will be rubber stamping a request from the Australian Communications and Media
22 March 2022
Morrison’s Proposed Ministry Of Truth Is Authoritarian And Dangerous
Plans by the Morrison Government to give more power to bureaucrats at the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to act against ‘big tech’ on misinformation and disinformation are a draconian threat to the free speech of every Australian, the Institute of Public Affairs has warned. “This is Scott Morrison’s Finkelstein moment. In the same way Julia Gillard and Stephen
21 December 2021
Legislating On Social Media Is No Remedy For Alienation
It’s clear that social media does great damage to the minds and psychological wellbeing of young people. Perhaps legislation can do something to address this, but to try to do so may be to embrace “safetyism” and ignore root causes. To fix the problem of psychological stress exacerbated by social media requires an understanding of why so many young people
26 November 2019
Christian Porter’s Defamation Reform Would Be A Catastrophic Mistake
Attorney-General Christian Porter wants social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to be legally liable for defamatory comments made by their users. Right now, the common law can distinguish between the legal liability of active publishers of information (like newspapers and broadcasters) and the passive platform operators that allow users to publish information themselves. Courts decide where this distinction is
2 August 2019
Keep The ACCC Out Of Social Media
Nearly exactly the same things said about social media today could have been said in the middle of the 15th century about the development of movable type and the printing press. People will use books and newspapers to say nasty things about each other; foreign powers will distribute pamphlets to undermine domestic governments with the result that eventually the sources
