‘Often what they mean by misinformation is ordinary people who have the temerity to disagree with the elites.’
A British commentator has weighed in on the Australian authorities’ push to crackdown on misinformation, calling it the “revenge of the establishment against the disobedient classes.”
The campaign against misinformation came in the wake of a terror-inspired Sydney church stabbing attack and the Bondi stabbing spree in early April.
Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, asked X Corp to globally block 65 tweets related to these incidents. However, the social media giant refused, igniting a legal battle at the federal court.
Brendan O’Neill, a British pundit and author, noted that there’s “nothing scarier” than the idea that the eSafety Commissioner, an unelected official, is exerting control over what people can and cannot say.
“I find that terrifying,” he said during an event at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney on April 23.
Mr. O’Neill added that efforts to control misinformation often came as a response to public disobedience.
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“I think a lot of these movements against disinformation, the way I understand it is the revenge of the establishment against the disobedient classes,” he said.
“So it is not a coincidence at all. Your eSafety stuff is really ratcheted it up against the Voice.”
In 2023, Australians emphatically rejected a change to the country’s constitution, with nearly 60 percent of voters opposing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, despite strong advocacy from the Albanese government.
The Voice proposal involves amending the Constitution to establish a near-permanent advisory body in government with the power to “make representations” to the executive and legislature on all matters deemed relevant to Indigenous people.
Opponents of the Voice, including Indigenous leader Warren Mundine, warned it would lead to separatism and division in Australia. However, some Yes proponents have argued that the No campaign was based on misinformation and disinformation to “confuse the Australian public.”
Mr. O’Neill noted that “the exact same thing happened” in the UK when people voted for Brexit and in America when people voted for Trump in 2016.
Calls to rein in misinformation also came about during COVID-19 when the World Health Organisation and other bodies vowed to tackle the “infodemic”—a pandemic of misinformation—amid skepticism and criticism of authorities’ stringent pandemic measures.
“You have this idea of dissenting thought or alternative ways of thinking or just criticism being almost like a disease, they want to crush that disease as well as the physical viruses,” Mr. O’Neill added.
“I think standing up against the preceding crusade against so-called misinformation is absolutely essential because often what they mean by misinformation is ordinary people who have the temerity to disagree with the elites.”
“That’s what misinformation means.”
In Australia, in the wake of two brutal stabbing attacks, the Albanese government has been looking to impose hefty fines on social media companies if they failed to control “misleading” content under a misinformation and disinformation bill.
However, according to the exposure draft, the content excluded for misinformation purposes includes content “authorised by the Commonwealth, a state, territory, or local government” and “professional news content.”
Content produced by an educational institution “accredited by a foreign government or a body recognised by a foreign government” will also be excluded from the list of misinformation.
Liberal MP Russell Broadbent posted a screenshot of the exposure draft on his X account on April 24.
“We know why all sides of government and the MSM are on board with the Mis and Disinformation (sic) Bill ... Because they’re excluded!” he said.
“And so are educational institutions accredited by a foreign government!!”
“What could possibly go wrong?”
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