Constitutional Law Expert: Albo Misinformation Bill Could Lead to Censorship; Yes, Really, By James Reed

The Albo government's latest adventure in tyranny, the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024), was pushed through the lower House while attention was devoted to the US election, and now it reaches the Senate. We have been urging people to contact the Senators in their state, in person if possible, but as things are getting late, letters and emails will help. Letters could be personally delivered, especially if you can get a number of copies from different voters.

The main point that all critics have made is that this Bill, as an Act could "all go very wrong" and undermine free speech and democracy. The latest mainstream critic in the news about this is Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey:

"Professor Twomey said the bill – which will empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to fine tech giants for false content it deems harmful – risked creating "worse problems" by suppressing free speech and undermining democracy.

In her first public comments responding to the final version of the legislation, Professor Twomey said the updated bill had addressed some of her concerns about the draft though issues remained around protecting the ­implied right of political communication.

Amid mounting fears that imposing the new measures on tech giants will place Australia at loggerheads with Donald Trump's billionaire backer Elon Musk, the owner of X, Professor Twomey said the bill raised constitutional issues by capturing claims and opinions on political matters rather than just "verifiably false" information. "Then you're right slap bang into political communication, and that's where the thing will fall over," she told a Senate hearing on Monday.

"Now the problem for me is that when I read the bill, I thought, it's OK, because it's referring to things that are verifiably false, and it's only dealing with if you're mucking up the electoral processes, not the political content.

"When I read the explanatory memoranda, it's saying something completely different, and that confusion, for me, is where potentially the constitutional problem comes in."

She said while the legislation did not appoint the ACMA as the "ministry of truth", as some critics had claimed, the framework did require the media watchdog to assess what constitutes misinformation and disinformation to monitor digital platforms.

Declaring that she didn't "trust" social media companies, Professor Twomey said she had previously assisted fact checkers for platforms who are often "young kids out of university" with a tendency to "distort" advice from experts inadvertently.

"As a general principle, outsourcing censorship to foreign corporations is generally not a good idea," she said.

As Communications Minister Michelle Rowland faces a political fight to pass the legislation, with the Coalition opposing the bill and key crossbenchers withholding their support, opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the evidence Professor Twomey shared with the Senate committee were a damning assessment of Labor's bill.

"These criticisms strike a dagger in the heart of Labor's misinformation bill," Mr Coleman said.

"Professor Twomey's conclusion that 'it could all go very wrong' backs up the views of thousands of Australians who have made strong submissions firmly opposing Labor's censorship bill."

Notice that the issue raised at the blog of this proposed legislation directly engaging Trump's backer Elon Musk is made. Vice president-elect J. D. Vance has already raised the prospects of the Trump administration no longer supporting NATO because of parallel legislation, so this is also going to bring Australia directly into conflict with Trump, with possible trade sanctions and/or withdrawal of US military support. Another article deals with this.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/top-legal-expert-warns-misinformation-bill-may-lead-to-worse-problems-through-censorship/news-story/405a18be8fe0ad7b6a6be092fe9b8a4e