Labor is moving to tackle one of the internet’s biggest threats: Australians finding out things that happened.
Anika Wells will have powers to add new categories of online harm, while insisting the Government isn’t setting out to police misinformation.
Australians may find staement like “a man can’t be a woman”, “humans aren’t the sole cause of climate change” or “Albo and Alan Joyce like meeting at a pay-by-the-hour hotels” as misinformation.
The PM has also had a big week in New York, including a selfie with Donald Trump which Albo described as “always good to catch up” — despite Trump not knowing who he was and thought he was there for “Make a Wish”
He also told the UN that misinformation and disinformation were affecting society, before the Government clarified that was media misinformation and was talking about the broader online environment, not the specific legislation.
Labor has already put $67.6 million into supporting journalism, but apparently hasn’t yet worked out how to deal with the troublesome online journalists who remain stubbornly committed to reporting things.
With the mainstream media assisted and the internet refusing to cooperate, Labor has decided there’s only one obvious threat left.
Accurate reporting.