Australia’s Censorship State: The Albanese Government’s Authoritarian Drift, By Paul Walker
It's not often the U.S. State Department criticises one of its closest allies on matters of free speech, but when it happens, people should pay attention. In a rare moment of clarity, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor recently called out Australia for censoring speech around transgender policies on U.S.-based platforms like X (formerly Twitter). The case of Canadian activist Chris Elston, also known as "Billboard Chris," was named as a troubling example. His views, widely held by many ordinary Australians, were geo-censored by order of Australia's eSafety Commissioner, because he dared to speak plainly about the irreversible damage of puberty blockers for children. Make no mistake: this isn't an isolated case. It's part of a pattern, one that is only accelerating under the leftist Albanese government.
Under the guise of "safety" and "inclusivity," Labor's technocrats have constructed a sprawling censorship regime with the eSafety Commissioner acting as its ideological enforcer. What began as a campaign to protect children from online abuse has metastasised into a system for silencing dissent, especially on gender ideology, race, migration, and Covid policy. If you express views that don't align with the social orthodoxy of inner-city elites, you risk being silenced, algorithmically throttled, geo-blocked, or hauled into digital tribunals.
This is not democratic governance. It's soft-totalitarianism enforced by digital means.
The Albanese government has proven itself both ideologically committed and politically incapable of resisting the radical elements within the bureaucratic class. And now, we see these impulses playing out on the international stage, with Australia joining the ranks of the European Union and Turkey in coercing American companies into enforcing speech codes. If your politics are wrong, your voice will be buried, first under the pretext of "harm," then by law.
What's worse, this isn't just about foreign commentators. These powers will, and already do, apply to ordinary Australians. Concerned parents, Christians, feminists, sceptics of transgenderism or mass migration, anyone who steps outside the approved narrative risks being flagged for "hate" and de-platformed.
Expect this to get worse.
Albanese's Labor Party has shown no interest in rolling back these powers. On the contrary, they appear to be expanding them, with proposed misinformation laws that would grant unelected regulators sweeping control over what Australians can see, say, and share online. "Trust and safety" is the new religion, and like all theocracies, it tolerates no heresy.
But censorship doesn't make a society safer. It breeds resentment, radicalises the fringes, and hollows out public trust in institutions. The U.S. State Department may be late to the party, but they're right: censorship undermines democracy. And Australia, once a beacon of pragmatic liberty, is fast becoming a test case for post-liberal authoritarianism in the Anglosphere.
If we care about our nation's future, about truth, sovereignty, and the right to speak freely, we must resist this slide into digital despotism.
Before it's too late.
"The US State Department has included Australia among the countries whose governments are criticized for subjecting US social media platforms to demands to censor users.
In Australia's case, the demands rest on advancing particular gender-based agendas – specifically, transgender-related policies.
The State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor used the example of a Canadian Chris Elston ("Billboard Chris") who is campaigning against subjecting children to puberty blockers, arguing they are too young to offer any meaningful consent to such life-changing procedures.
"The greatest child abuse scandal in the world right now," is how Elston describes the situation.
For this kind of stance, Elston got himself in the crosshairs of Australia's eSafety Commissioner.
When Elston took to X to oppose the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) appointing a transgender activist to the transgender policy advisory board – and, possibly to make matters worse, used "the wrong pronoun" while referring the Australian in question – the government Down Under managed to get X to censor one of his posts last year, in a manner "geo limited" to Australia.
But that was in 2024 – and the current White House is not happy about any of this.
"Censorship undermines democracy, suppresses political opponents, and degrades public safety," the State Department's Bureau announced, while naming Elston's case as an example of "coercion" against US social media.
Elston, understandably, finds this turn of events "tremendous" – from a US government that more or less openly or tacitly espoused similar policies and techniques, to a new one that stands behind his right to free expression.
"It's tremendous to have the State Department support what we all know is true: free speech is a fundamental right, critical to a democratic society," Elston said in his reaction to the State Department's press release.
Elston, X, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, and the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance, have taken the eSafety Commissioner to court, with the result of the legal challenge expected later in 2025.
Others that the State Department chose to name and shame now as "distinguished" international purveyors of censorship is former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton (again in connection with pressure on X), as well as the Turkish authorities (who picked on Meta).
The statement stressed that regardless of whether content may be "objectionable" – that does not justify censorship, which ultimately "undermines democracy, suppresses political opponents, and degrades public safety."
The State Department emphasized that the US diplomacy "will continue to place an emphasis on promoting fundamental freedoms."
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