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by Chris Baxter

Today is the darkest day for Freedom of Speech in Australian history. The Labor Party has introduced its revised misinformation legislation to Parliament. Having read the legislation and posted my interim thoughts throughout the day, here is a summary of why you should be extremely concerned about it.

The scope of the new MisDis legislation introduced by Labor today is truly dystopian – no less concerning than the Bill of last year in my view. There is very, very little it does not plan to control other than 1. media it already controls and 2. private messages (or small groups… pic.twitter.com/R0klkxNSPF

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

State Control

This legislation creates a two-tier rule book for what Australians can say, depending on who they are. On the one hand, Government-approved “professional” media gets a free pass to publish whatever they want, and on the other, all sorts of punitive actions can be taken against platforms that allow citizen journalism.

The 2024 MisDis Legislation is going to be the slow death of citizen jounalism in Australia because only “professional” news content is being excluded from the onerous requirements of the legislation. Under Section 16(2)(b) the only opinions that will not be subject to constant… pic.twitter.com/FJF9CAUbYF

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

Whilst the punitive measures are cleverly not directly aimed at authors, they are such that digital platforms will have no choice but to shadow-ban or otherwise silence those who persist with posting information the Government deems as misinformation or disinformation.

https://t.co/3vkFqsdEBq

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

The Government has also created mechanisms for the state to intrude within private chat groups that are beyond a threshold size that they will decide. A register of misinformation will be created and maintained by ACMA and published on their website. No doubt, this will become an important reference tool for institutionalising the Government’s narrative, if it is not already, within mainstream media and education.

I’ve got my hands on the “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024” (link below) and will be analysing it against the draft exposure Bill introduced last year to see exactly how the Australian Government intends to control our… pic.twitter.com/tiWhzbunvh

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

Secret Police and Re-education

Of course, no totalitarian imposition on free speech is possible without threats to the individual, and so now any person who ACMA deems to have information in relation to what it regards as misinformation can be hauled before its “secret police” at threat of fines.

The 2024 MisDis legislation introduced today seems to turn ACMA into some form of Misinformation Secret Police! Clause 34(1) allows punitive civil penalities against any person who fails to cough up information or a document relating to whatever ACMA deems misinformation or… pic.twitter.com/NCZRGKZstJ

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

Cunningly, the legislation also creates so-called “media literacy plans”, which I believe will be used to force digital providers to add Government-approved framing and contextualisation to people’s posts. The new law will apply to almost every type of digital content, including search engines and AI, because, of course, they couldn’t have AI wrong-think either.

One of the curious aspects of the new 2024 MisDis legislation introduced today is the requirement for Digital Platforms to implement so called “media literacy plans”. These plans are effectively controlled by the Australian Government under s22 (a) which can require the Digital… pic.twitter.com/0ED2wIDih4

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

also: pic.twitter.com/iNhMysaaYn

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

So many perspectives of ordinary Australians are soon to be silenced: from people who do not believe men can become women, to those who have doubts about the legitimacy of the banking system, through to those who have different perspectives on health, medicines and vaccines.

There’s an insidious definition of “Serious Harm” within the MisDis Legislation introduced by Labor today –

s14(b) You remember all those posts you shared within facebook groups questioning the Covid orthodoxy? Or was that a family member who shared it? Doesn’t matter. You can… pic.twitter.com/SsskV4U5pJ

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

The potential of a post creating “serious harm” is being set above freedom of political communication in Australia as of today.

Section 54 of the new misinformation legislation, introduced by labor today, porports to limit the legislation in relation to political communication.… pic.twitter.com/gwfgCqrYQY

— Chris Baxter (@chrisbaxter41) September 12, 2024

Finally, and most ironically, given the harms to democracy the legislation purports to address, the legislation unequivocally sets the need to mitigate “serious harm” above freedom of political communication. Australians have just been surrounded.

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Chris Baxter is a Christian, husband and father to four young children who holds a deep concern for the civil liberties of fellow Australians. Working as a patent attorney, Chris has some familiarity with reading complex legislation and tries to use this skill to expose Australian Government overreach. Chris and his family attend Lane Cove Metropolitan Baptist Church and he advises his family’s charitable trusts.

Republished with thanks to Chris Baxter on X. Image courtesy of Adobe.