Australian PM, politicians to attack social media “misinformation” with censorship, digital ID and AI enforcers

05/06/2024 / By Belle Carter

Some Australian politicians, both those in government and opposition, are now forcing social media platforms to be more vigilant about “misinformation” and “violence” being posted and shared by their users. The people in politics are specifically targeting content related to the Sydney stabbing attacks, an incident where an Assyrian Christian bishop was attacked during a live-streamed service in western Sydney.

Mar Mari Emmanuel, the conservative leader of the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, suffered lacerations to his head. More than 50 police officers were injured and 20 police cars were damaged in an ensuing riot outside the church following the incident. Last week, Emmanuel, who is recovering in hospital, released a message saying he was “doing fine, recovering very quickly.” Then on Friday, police charged a 16-year-old with terrorism offenses in connection with the stabbing but the bishop said he had forgiven his attacker.

Meanwhile, the crackdown order on social media came from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton. They also push for the “good use” of artificial intelligence using online age verification via digital IDs. Albanese also criticized social media for not reacting fast enough to “protect users” and revealed he is “prepared to take whatever action is necessary to haul these companies into line.” He was also upset that social media users posted the videos they took of the incidents on their accounts “instead of forwarding it to the police.” Albanese spoke about the concept of a “social license” as something that social platforms are granted to operate, and in line with this, must “start to understand their social responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Dutton wants new and more stringent laws that would deal with “disinformation” and “misinformation” and even boasted about his initiative to get the Five Eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.K. and the U.S.) to “exert pressure” on social media. “Stronger laws” in the same context is an idea supported by Australia’s Agriculture Minister Murray Watt while Labor Minister Chris Bowen aimed, particularly at X as “a cesspit of misinformation and violence” that “won’t be put up with.” “We want to support the government (…) where it is effectively holding social media giants to account,” opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham has also said.

X, owned by Big Tech mogul Elon Musk, announced over the weekend that it would challenge the order to take down content related to the incident. ESafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said last week that X had been issued notices to remove material depicting “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.” “This was a tragic event and we do not allow people to praise it or call for further violence. There is a public conversation happening about the event, on X and across Australia, as is often the case when events of major public concern occur,” the social media company said in a statement. “While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally. We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court.”

In response, Albanese said in a press conference that he finds it extraordinary that X chose not to comply and is trying to argue their case. He said Australians want misinformation and disinformation to stop. “This isn’t about freedom of expression, this is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true, that everyone knows is not true, are replicated and weaponized to cause division and in this case, to promote negative statements and potentially to just inflame what was a very difficult situation. And social media has a social responsibility,” he argued. (Related: NO ONE can censor you at Brighteon.io, unlike Elon Musk’s X which will ALWAYS be doomed under censorship pressure.)

Dutton is preferred AU prime minister over Albanese in latest Queensland poll

Despite joining forces to smash social media with their tyrannical censorship efforts, a poll conducted by YouGov recently concluded that voters in the Sunshine State have split from the national mood.

Forty-five percent of Queenslanders believe Dutton would do a better job as Australian prime minister. Thirty-seven percent, on the other hand, still believe in Albanese and 18 percent cannot decide between the two. The latest national polling conducted last month had Albanese with a 13-point lead in the battleground state.

Meanwhile, a separate survey based on a poll of 3,655 voters from Oct. 31 to Dec. 15 that covered the aftermath of the failed Voice referendum, confirmed that women and middle-aged voters from key states are losing faith in Albanese. This is because the cost of living crisis is hurting Labor after the Reserve Bank in November raised interest rates for the 13th time in 18 months. With inflation still high, Labor is also annoying those aged 35 to 49 battling surging mortgage repayments. Albanese’s favorability has also fallen in two key marginal seat battlegrounds – NSW and Western Australia, where Labor surprisingly gained four Perth electorates from the Liberal Party at the last election.

Another survey by the Resolve Political Monitor for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald looked at the responses from 4,818 voters over three surveys from October to December and it found that labor’s two-party-preferred lead over the Coalition fell for those aged 35 to 49. This election-deciding demographic saw its support fall from 56 percent to 44 percent in October, down to 53 percent to 47 percent in December. These are the voters with a mortgage and young children who have suffered the most financially, with 12 of the RBA’s rate 13 rises occurring since Labor came to power in May 2022. More women are also turning away from the Albanese government, with 36 percent backing the Coalition compared with 30 percent giving their first preference to Labor.

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