Help us Elon, you’re our only hope! (The Australian government is sneaking in misinformation laws and ID rules)

By Jo Nova

Spare a moment to celebrate the outstanding bravery of Elon Musk, and how much he risked to play a key role in this historic election. It was all or nothing…

The Australian Government wants to stop people talking on X and on this blog

The same day America votes to be the Land of the Free — Australia is passing laws to fine and imprison people from saying something the government disagrees with.  Soon we will not be allowed to point out side effects and risks of “public health” measures, nor say anything that damages faith in our bankers. 100% of vaccines are 100% good and central banks are not insolvent!

The deceptive Australian Labor Party snuck through the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024 (MAD Bill) under the pandemonium of the US Election day news. Perhaps they were just embarrassed their billion dollar ABC news is such an abject failure at stamping out *misinformation* because no one watches it anymore. Or maybe they hid the Misinformation Bill because they knew Australians would not like being treated like babies who can’t figure out the truth for themselves. The Albanese government went out of its way to introduce a special standing order to get around the normal parliamentary process. It will be in the Senate on Monday next week!

If citizens say something the government deems to be misinformation, huge fines will apply to social media, blogs and forums. Instead of having the implicit right to criticize the government we will need to “prove” our comments were scientific, religious or satirical in a court of law. How many lawyers do you have?

Ultimately, only the rich will be allowed to speak, and forums like X — the citizens news service, will have to guess what is considered misinformation this week. For more details on this see Tony Nikolic’s post at Maryanne Demasi’s blog.

He quotes John F Kennedy and Franklin D Roosevelt:

When the government becomes the sole arbiter of truth, it opens the door to corruption and tyranny. When citizens are too afraid to speak out, the government with its cheerleading bureaucracy and corporate sector can operate without accountability, leading to an erosion of trust in institutions.

SIGN the PETITION TO OPPOSE THE  BILL

It is no coincidence the cowardly Australian Labor Party is also writing up legislation to pretend to save children under 16 from bullying on social media by banning them completely. It is, of course, just an excuse to force X, and Facebook et al to require ID checks on every single user — how else will they prove the users are over 16?

The Labor Party don’t want anonymous critics or whistleblowers. The protests have just begun.

This is brilliant! @JAGtalks  via  Craig Kelly

 

Comment of the day :

h/t to David Maddison, Panda, The IPA — the Institute of Public Affairs.

 

10 out of 10 based on 25 ratings

24 comments to Help us Elon, you’re our only hope! (The Australian government is sneaking in misinformation laws and ID rules)

  • #

    In Australia, saying something the government disagrees with is better known as ‘Telling the Truth’.

    160

    • #
      GlenM

      For a Government that continually gets things wrong how can it claim to be the arbiter of truth. ACMA is the biggest worry for it seems to have the authority to haul people before it. Recall the AHRC and the control freaks who ran it. The opposition must reject this and seek to annul it in government. For God’s sake Dutton get your act together.

      60

  • #
    Tony Dique

    To the Aus Govt. GFY

    140

  • #
    Dennis

    Sneaking in, if the legislation contained measures Labor believed would gain them support they would be bragging about it.

    70

  • #
    Simon Thompson M.B. B.S.

    The ambivalence is palpable. Mr Musk’s autistic aversion to falsehoods and confabulation. Contrasting the fact that he is harvesting the “Green Deal” bigly. He is a 5th dan Troll along with Mr Trump.

    The timing of the bill whilst attention was diverted is a tell. The MSM operation paperclip is defunct, they have capitulated. The boot stomping on the face for eternity is about to descend.

    51

  • #
    Peter C

    Why won’t Australian Voters pay attention to things that really matter?

    MSM is part of the problem for sure but there are other sources of information if people will only look.

    I have made many attempts to introduce my friends to the JoNova blog but I think they only glanced at it once or twice and then went back to reading The Age and watching the ABC!!

    90

    • #
      AlanG

      Most Aussies do not want to think (or know how to) for themselves.
      They like to lead an oblivious life believing what politicians tell them and conforming to them.
      I do not understand why ordinary Australians think that politicians (selected by their political parties, not by us) are qualified or smart enough to run a country and make decisions for all of us. Especially as parliament uses a simple majority to pass broad social issues that affect 100% of us, but maybe only 50.1% agree with – so the other 49.9% must follow, that is not a clear majority. Social issues should require at least 55/45 but 60/40 is better. For financial issues, a simple majority is probably acceptable, but not for social issues.

      10

  • #
    Ross

    There’s no doubt we now live in a world of inversion. There was once a time when the Australian Labor Party represented the little bloke (or woman). That they understood the only way to stand up to big money, big corporate was to unionise and to have some safety in numbers. Part of that “movement” was the belief in things like freedom of speech or the ability to say things against governments and corporate interests. Because the voice of the people and their opinions needed to be heard. But similar to the US democrats the ALP have done a complete 180 and now, if anything, seemed to be more aligned with big corporate and big government. To hell with the little bloke/woman, what would they know and who cares about little things like human rights anyway- as Dan Andrews said, they are overemphasised. So here we have the ALP politicians with their supposed union background all out to reduce citizens freedom of speech abilities. There’s something really sus about this whole MAD legislation, mainly because it appears bi-partisan as the LNP were the original architects of the moves. (Paul Fletcher. LNP Communications Minister). Is this a situation where the bureaucracy are forcing the politicians into this legislation after the COVID bollocks?

    60

  • #
    John Connor II

    Done that blog rip yet Jo?
    For posterity and future reading.
    Maybe that offshore hosting?

    Oh well…

    20

  • #

    We did one months ago, but what mine ended up as, was a mass of code, I haven’t investigated how to translate.

    10

  • #
    Simon Thompson M.B. B.S.

    Perhaps we communicate using the approved Newspeak doublethink then subtly add /s

    20

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      How did I get here… all I did was follow a wascally wabbit… I know nussink.

      Praise Authority! Love Subservience!

      Hail Albotrough!

      /snoop

      10

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      Satire is exempt. Here and everywhere we need a facility to state “Everything I say is satire” on our profile. Failing that, can the ‘s’ in /s mean satire, or do we have to create a new symbol. Perhaps #s?

      10

  • #
    GlenM

    For a Government that continually gets things wrong how can it claim to be the arbiter of truth. ACMA is the biggest worry for it seems to have the authority to haul people before it. Recall the AHRC and the control freaks who ran it. The opposition must reject this and seek to annul it in government. For God’s sake Dutton get your act together.

    30

  • #
    Bruce

    And then, there are the “anti-coercion” laws.

    VERY specifically, these do NOT apply to the “government or any of its “agencies”.

    Par for the course.

    I have contended for some time that the “fundamental precept” of the preesumption of innocwnce is DEAD ans buried.

    The core “principles” of the Napoleonic Code arrived with a vengeance DECADES ago.

    Basically, Basically framed:

    “You must be guilty.

    You would not have been investigated / arrested / charged / convicted otherwise.

    The state is supreme..

    Ayn Rand had some words to say about this in “Atlas Shrugged”:

    “Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

    40

  • #
    Ardy Smith

    Please also pay attention to the Trojan Horse of the Bill to prevent children under 16 from using social media.
    Few argue with that in principle, but that is not its true purpose.
    Its purpose is to compel full identification of ALL social media users – to eliminate privacy, and generate lists of dissenting voices.
    The only way of enforcing this proposed law is to compel full identification of all social media users, for each and every account, thus tracking your opinions, comments, and then coming after you for non compliance.

    40

  • #
    HB

    So what they will do is
    Encourage platforms that do not require robust id telegram comes to mind
    encrypting everything will become standard
    TOR LOKINET and VPN’s will become standard practice
    Decentralized social media protocols like Nostr will become the norm
    hosting blogs offshore will be come standard
    Kids will become very internet savvy
    This will backfire

    30

  • #
    Old Goat

    The pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction now . As the MSM is starting to realise that its irrelevant it will have to change or go under . The internet has changed the media landscape and the truth can leak out and get heard by a growing audience – this blog is an example . Its growing popularity along with podcasts allow for all views to be explored . The government by trying to censor what we can look at contains the assumption that we are cretins who cannot think for ourselves .

    30

  • #
    TdeF

    Joe Rogan with 47 million views meant Donald Trump did not have to pander to journalists to reach 47 million voters.
    Melania Trump with America’s best seller meant she did not have to pander to book reviewers.
    Donald Trump’s success with voters meant they ignored the main stream media which universally pilloried Trump.

    And Donald Trumps’ success was against a major prejudice where most women, half the population, would really like to see a woman President. Who wouldn’t?

    Except one like Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Angela Merkel, Indira Gandhi. Even very qualified but deplorable Hillary Clinton.

    Not a dropkick opportunist like Kamala Harris who has no children, was given all jobs without being qualified, married at 50 presumably to get into Federal politics in 2016. Not black, not Indian, not European and with neither parent born in America. A woman who does not acknowledge her own living father, she is entirely the wrong model for women anywhere. And in all her time as VP and Candidate, did not and likely could not answer a single question!

    The legacy press are now history. And Hollywood. AI will take all their jobs. And AI Harrison Ford will live forever. He may even run for the senate. Of the Alliance.

    Of course the Marxists have to control the internet. It’s their only hope to suppress the truth.

    10

    • #
      TdeF

      Our very own Anthony Albanese is following President Lula of Brazil in his attempt to control the internet. But Australia does not have any satellites. Elon Musk’s Starlink has 6,426 satellites. We were about to launch one for our own defence, but decided to pump water uphill instead. It shows Australians do not have the smartest politicians in the world.

      00

      • #
        TdeF

        And great news.. “Senate Republicans must choose a new leader to take over from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). That election is set for November 13 and will include newly elected senators.” The end of an era of Chinese interference in the Senate.

        00

  • #
    John Hultquist

    A re-branding is called for.
    JoNova’s Blog becomes . . .
    JoNova’s Satirical Musings + Friends [JNSMF]

    More inventive names are shirley possible. 😉

    10

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