Two unrelated acts of stabbing violence, first the random murderous rampage of a knife-wielding man in Sydney’s Bondi Junction, followed by the livestreamed knife attack on an Assyrian Christian bishop in his church, have led to a crackdown on freedom of expression in Australia. Misinformation and disinformation, our politicians have concluded, caused these grim incidents.
Unpalatable as they are, online outpourings of bile and deliberate falsehood need to be seen to be disbelieved.
Australia’s Liberal party, supposedly representing the country’s centre-right voters, has indicated it will back Australia’s Labor government in imposing a legislated regime to ‘combat’ misinformation and disinformation online. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has indicated that he would now support Labor government legislation giving the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) – Australia’s broad equivalent of Ofcom – the power to intervene with social media platforms and content providers (which could include Facebookers and Tweeters) who disseminate what is deemed disinformation.
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