‘Very wrong’: Dire warning on misinfo crackdown

One of Australia’s leading constitutional lawyers is warning the Albanese government’s proposed misinformation laws could go “very wrong”.

The revamped Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill, a version of which was knocked back last year, faced severe criticisms from the moment the government announced it was taking another crack at it in September.

The opposition almost immediately rebuked it on freedom of speech grounds before it had even passed through shadow cabinet.

But the future of the Bill has been dealt a serious blow after Anne Twomey, professor emerita at The University of Sydney, gave a scathing review of the legislation to a senate committee on Monday.

“Misinformation and disinformation are insidious and widespread through social media platforms,” she said in her tabled opening statement.

“I would like very much to see it all disappear.

“But I worry that in the process of ineffectually trying to do this, we create worse problems through large-scale censorship of contested views and the undermining of democracy in the name of cleansing it from misinformation.

“What is particularly worrying about this legislation is that responsibility is being outsourced to large overseas companies over which Australia has little control or influence.

“It could all go very wrong.”

The legislation comes amid widespread concerns of both deliberate and unintentional falsehoods flooding social media around contentious political issues.

Increasingly, what happens online has real world consequences.

Misinformation swept platforms following the deadly Bondi stabbings in April, with prominent alternative social media influencers falsely accusing a Jewish student of carrying out the attack.

Days later, after an Assyrian Orthodox priest was stabbed mid-liturgy, demonstrators clashed with police outside the clergyman’s church, with Russian state media fuelling the ire online.

Much of the false information, along with highly graphic videos of both incidents, spread on Elon Musk’s platform, X.

The tech billionaire has also weighed in on the misinformation Bill, calling the Albanese government “fascists”.