America is unique for many reasons, not the least of which is its First Amendment. No nation codifies a right to free speech as protected from government regulation the way we do. Thou Shalt not (Thou, being the government) make laws abridging the freedom of speech or the press. It’s quite encompassing, as is the desire of people in positions of power to find ways to get around it.
The UN at least pretended to try and help. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 19 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
That same document contains many other things that mirror the enumeration in America’s Constitution, none of which is worth the paper upon which it was printed. Just so we’re clear (as Vodka, Comrade), there appears to be a universal right to ignore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prefaced by the words, “Well, yeah, but.”
The sovereignty of the individual and all that follows, to be free, to work and accumulate property, or to speak and move freely, is an affection whose inconvenience is easily shown the door, which is what the Bouncers in Australia’s parliament have done to free speech.
Australia’s Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 continues to ignite heated debate, with critics arguing that the bill risks stifling free speech.
The proposed bill, which targets misinformation related to elections, public health, and critical infrastructure, requires tech companies to establish codes of conduct.
Platforms failing to self-regulate will face standards imposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which would oversee enforcement. This could include fines of up to 5% of total global revenue for platforms that fail to comply with the new rules.
You could also call it a pandemic response “response” bill. Those who dared to contradict the official line shall be silenced, even though the government was the vector for disinformation and misinformation on nearly everything COVID, including interventions, pharmaceutical or otherwise.
And in true cowardly form, the government isn’t even doing the censoring. It is taxing online “infrastructure” that fails to do its dirty work. Digital brownshirts, who can’t know what minutia could get them in hot water until the communications minister or one of her advocates tells them.
If you’re wondering what that might look like as exhibit one, from America, here is Hillary Clinton. Mz Hillary has been a leading source of misinformation and disinformation for half a century, so she knows what it is.
Hildabeast ought to be the first in the queue, but much like Australia, the UN, or wherever you reside, that’s not what the word “everyone” means in Article 19. It certainly has no force in Australia, where there are no constitutional protections for free speech or press; in fact, they state as much.
The Constitution has no Bill of Rights, such as that found in the United States Constitution, which prevents a legislature from passing laws that infringe basic human rights, such as freedom of speech. Some express protections, however, are given by the Constitution against legislative or executive action by the Commonwealth, but not by the States. . Examples are section 51 (xxxi) (acquisition of property must be ‘on just terms’), section 80 (trial by jury is required in relation to some criminal offences), and section 116 (a right exists to exercise any religion).
And you won’t find any, which is bad news for Australians. Elon Musk might decide to pick that fight, but most platforms will shut down, leave, or become mouthpieces for the quixotic communications ministry rather than risk the fiscal beating, linguistic tripwires, and legal entanglements. The story is global. Everyone is watching to see if another Western democracy is going to get away with what. WUWT granulated in the headline to its coverage: “Australia Introduces Legislation to Outlaw Disagreeing with the Government.”
That’s what Hillary wants, and she’s not alone. The disinformation industrial complex, that oligarchy of government, NGOs, fact-checkers, many in the Democrat Party and a few too many Republicans, gatekeepers (like NewsGuard), and syndicalist big tech, is onboard but for the First Amendment and its more troubling seditious sidekick, the free market.
Australia is using big tech to censor speech the government doesn’t like. The market can’t possibly create competitive alternatives because they will inevitably be subject to the law. In America, they can’t pass that law, so they’ve encouraged their ideological allies (who operate openly and with the State’s blessings as near-monopolies) to do it anyway. The market has responded with uncooperative competitors gaining influence and market share, sparking legal skirmishes as the Blob tries to strangle these upstarts in the crib (ad blacklisting, etc).
It is a war with many fronts and one that aspiring despots will not abandon, much the way blue states that can’t ban firearms infringe by other means. If you can’t deny them the right, make exercising it a bloody nightmare. If it is too much trouble, people will self-censor.
We like trouble, and we hope Australians will, too, because there is more than one way to get a message out. Most of the successful activism in human history happened without the Internet.
