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It occurs to me that both the language of cancel culture and specific, high-profile instances of it have quickly faded from public debate. By contrast, talk about “misinformation” and “disinformation” is everywhere.

The new laws would lower the legal threshold for prosecuting people for vilification and would add gender identity, sex, sex characteristics, sexual orientation and disability to the list of protected attributes alongside race and religion, which are already protected.

At a recent World Economic Forum meeting, John Kerry made it quite clear that things like freedom of speech and the US First Amendment stand in the way of the global elites implementing their radical changes.

Alliance Defending Freedom launched an open letter condemning Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes’ illegal attacks on X. Requesting Brazil’s far-left government repeal its lockout of the social media company, the letter called for the restoration of “the free flow of information.”

First, those in charge of adjudicating what is and is not misinformation are sometimes wrong, resulting in the censorship of true information. Second, there are harms associated with the suppression of true information.

Most of us know there is a draft bill before the Parliament with a verbose title: Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill. Its name alone should tell us something smells. The answer to bad speech is MORE speech, not less.

From our initial analysis, we have significant concerns. While the Misinformation Bill is an improvement on the previous iteration, and provides some protections for religious speech, it still puts the power of censorship in the hands of unaccountable private corporations.

Seattle street preacher Matthew Meinecke was forcibly removed by police at a pro-abortion protest and a PRIDEFest rally in 2022. Attendees abused and physically assaulted Meinecke. Instead of arresting Antifa and the LGBTQ+ self-identifiers involved, Seattle police detained the pastor.

Family First is officially back. After being voluntarily deregistered as a political party in 2017, the party that began life in March 2004 has re-entered politics in 2024. The Australian Electoral Commission approved Family First’s application on 20 September.

As with bits of most government legislation, the Misinformation Bill is worded in such a way as to sound quite innocuous and safe – even helpful and necessary. But that is so often not the case, and the opposite outcome is what we must fear.

One of the most shameful and alarming events of modern history took place from 2020-2022. Under the guise of saving us from the COVID-19 virus, much of the world went through one of the most shocking periods of statist control and violation of basic human rights.

If the federal senate of our nation cannot model respectful debate and the free exchange of ideas, even those it strongly disagrees with, then the very nature of our democracy is not only "harmed", but irreparably undermined.

There are fighters everywhere for the most important democratic right, free speech. One of these great Australians is a 14-year-old young man named Liam, and his story is a lesson for the members of our Parliament. It is Liam who is the real hero of this story.

Labor’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 attempts to label opinions and facts, that don’t suit the government’s narratives, as “misinformation”, “disinformation”, or “harmful” on social media.

We need to pray and act (write to your local member etc.) on this critical issue. This conversion practices bill is an attack on sanity, free speech, and being able to share the hope of the Gospel.

The problem with the government’s approach is that it goes way beyond truth and lies, but about an arbitrary judgment by faceless bureaucrats of what is or isn’t true or what is or isn’t harmful. 

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland tabled a new version of the bill which she said is intended to “carefully balance the public interest in combatting seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation with the freedom of expression that is so fundamental to our democracy.”

Today is the darkest day for Freedom of Speech in Australian history. The Labor Party has introduced its revised misinformation legislation to Parliament.

Brazil’s Alexandre de Moraes’ overreach has gone nuclear. The far-left judicial El Jefe is freezing Starlink’s finances, preventing the Elon Musk-owned company from doing further business in the country.

After a five-year wait, Dr Jereth Kok finally had a hearing in Melbourne last month. He was represented by the Christian legal group, the Human Rights Law Alliance. They did a terrific job, but the case continues.