Fester,

Yes. It has absolutely nothing to do with ASIO. The Albanese shut-your-mouth Bill is aimed at Australian citizens: or should I say ‘some’ Australian citizens; certainly not Russia and China, who are always putting out misinformation, and always will.

And “the issue” does not “warrant” any legislation. There should be no legislation against free speech in Australia or any other democratic country - if we want it to continue being democratic, which Albanese quite clearly does not want Australia to do. Albanese is making a blatant attack on democracy.

And, anyone thinking that Australian politicians are not as malignant as I suggest they are should cast their mind back to the Covid period, when the threat of cancellation had a chilling effect on free speech, with the loss of many of our basic rights that are STILL YET TO BE RETURNED.

The bottom line - government wants more tools which it could use to quash any rebellions.

This lame excuse of "protecting my safety" - well what have they to do with my safety? who ever asked them to care for my safety? who ever even asked them to exist? It is THEIR safety, the safety of their absolute power which they want to maintain.

ttbn,

Can you be more specific? What are these basic rights that are still yet to be returned?

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Yuyutsu,

“Protecting our safety” (that's a strange way to word it) is half a government’s job. But this bill is more about holding large organisations to account for the (often harmful) misinformation their platforms can help to spread.

There are plenty of other countries you could move to where the ruling regimes don’t care at all about your safety. I hear Somalia is currently a libertarian’s dream.

I’m sorry to break it to you, too, but the real world really isn’t as exciting as you think it is.

You and ttbn remind me of myself as a teenager - idealistic and always looking for an evil to oppose. But then I got out into the real world and realised that it was far more chaotic than I had ever imagined: the people in it were too incompetent to pull off a grand conspiracy, and far too selfish to devote their lives to something much bigger than themselves like an evil plot.

Largely unnoticed, International Democracy Day popped up while Albanese’s anti- democratic Bill was being resurrected and discussed. The usual suspects pretended to believe in democracy, just like Albanese.

The EU, one of the nastiest bunch of bullies in the world after the UN, postured that they “... must double down on our efforts to defend democracy through participation and leadership”.

Hypocritical, the European Parliament is busting a gut to regulate free speech on social media with their Digital Services Act; and trying to goad Elon Musk into taking legal action against their anti-democratic bastardry.

The UN itself - that wonderful organisation that put Saudi Arabia in charge of women's rights - riddled with despots, preached how “Democracy enables people to have a say in their futures”, and chuntered on about “individual” freedoms.

That’s the mob that wants to run the whole world on its terms with no questions asked, and no resistance.

The UN, also on International Democracy Day, imperiously declared that “Artificial Intelligence is a tool for good governance”.

And, how about the UN's declaration that criticism of pharmaceutical companies during Covid was “a harm”. Free speech about people's opinions on their own health "results in real world harms" according to this mob.

Sounds a lot like Albanese, whose Bill, if successful, will ban political communication and dissent.

More and more, democracy is becoming just a word in the mouths of despots.

ttbn,

You've gone off the rails now and are jumping at shadows. Either that or you're just digging your heels in.

The bill doesn't ban anything and will only strengthen democratic processes by making it more difficult for China an Russia to interfere and by promoting transparency.

Rest assured, you will still be able to access all the fake news sites you seem to get your information from.