Dear Fester,

«What then of books, television and the press?»

Depends which kind of books, also on the person who reads them.

Television is generally harmful - I don't allow it in my home.

Press for most people is OK in moderation, so one is aware to a certain degree of what goes around them. Too much is toxic, addictive and wastes one's precious life on nonsense.

«You have every freedom to have and express your opinion, even act on it as you see fit, but is it anyone's place to deny participation for everybody on the basis that they consider it harmful?»

With the exception of parents and spiritual guides which one has willingly accepted - my answer is clearly NO. It is not anyone's place to deny others' participation, including in platforms that are actually harmful.

Have I not made this clear enough already?

As of October 9, the Liberal Party's plans for censorship of our speech were still on their website.

The devastating effect of hatred is sadly nothing new.
However the scale and impact are today amplified by new
technologies of communication. So much so that hate speech
has become one of the most frequent methods for spreading
divisive rhetoric and evil ideologies on a global scale.

Violence often starts with words. Words of hatred spread
intolerance, divide societies, promote and endorse
discrimination and incite violence. Freedom of speech is
not absolute. Most civilized Western societies impose limits.
Responsibility has to be taken. There are legal consequences
in many cases.

For anyone really interested in what the Bill will do -
as has already been suggested - kindly read what it entails
before condemning it.

Hi Foxy,

"For anyone really interested in what the Bill will do -
as has already been suggested - kindly read what it entails
before condemning it."

If you weren't feeling so well and had a number of medical tests done, would you seek a medical professional or would you try to make sense of them yourself? Would you try flying a plane if someone gave you the manual? What you might do Foxy is look at some of the submissions made to the Senate about the bill and see what people make of it. I haven't found much expert opinion in support of it, and similar concerns tend to be raised by the bill's many critics. Why dig a hole for yourself?

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MisandDisinfobill/Submissions

Here is an excerpt from a submission by The Victorian Bar Inc:

"8. Taking those matters in turn, the Bill’s interference with the self-fulfilment of free expression will occur
primarily by the chilling self-censorship it will inevitably bring about in the individual users of the
relevant services (who may rationally wish to avoid any risk of being labelled a purveyor of
misinformation or disinformation).
9. Even leaving aside this effect, it is not at all clear that the Bill is required. It is to be recalled that the
problem of the dissemination of false information online has only relatively recently risen to
prominence and has so far been relatively effectively responded to by voluntary actions taken by the
most important actors in this space. In this regard, freedom of expression on the internet has been
exercised since the 1990s.
10. The Bill’s response to false information thus does not seem warranted. It may even be counter-
productive when one recalls that the purveyors of so-called misinformation and disinformation are
often part of relatively small online communities who are brought together by feelings of isolation
and distrust of the State. The perceived silencing or targeting of these groups is unlikely to address
the underlying social problems animating the dissemination of false information. It is widely accepted
in liberal democratic societies that it is better to fight information with information and to attempt to
persuade rather than coerce people towards positions grounded in evidence and fact"

Hi Fester,

The Senate referred the Bill to the Environment and
Communications Legislation Committee for a report
by 25th November 2024. The Committee received a large
number of material for this inquiry and the Secretariat
is processing this material as quickly as possible.

Submissions will be loaded to the Committee's website in
due course.

There's more at:

http://aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MisandDisinfobill#: