URGENT "AUSTRALIA: Banning Misinformation... or Suppressing Speech?" with Professor Daniel Angus

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps

Comedy Interviews, Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education, Comedy

4.6 • 863 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's crunch time for the Australian government's Orwellian-sounding "Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation" legislation.

The bill was passed last Thursday by Australia's House of Representatives and is currently stalled in the Senate. Right-wing populists are spreading hysteria that it would let the government throw you in jail for speaking your mind on social media.

The bill would not, in fact, punish you for posting on social media. But it could give government officials the power to make social media companies suppress opinions the Australian government deems "harmful".

Josh opposes giving such power to the state. By contrast, Professor Daniel Angus is broadly supportive of the bill. He's one of Australia's leading researchers into technology, social media, fake news and misinformation, and he advised the government on the legislation.

At this crucial moment, with only two weeks remaining before parliament shuts down for the year -- and as the Senate deliberates on this hugely important law -- please listen to this conversation and get informed. Wherever you are, enjoy this friendly clash of perspectives about algorithms and free speech on the web.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Gahey, humans.
0:04.0	Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas.
0:06.6	And just how dangerous should an idea have to be in order for a government to be able to penalise a social media company for allowing it to be posted.
0:17.2	That is the question that the Australian government is trying to wrestle with.
0:20.7	And, oh boy, it is causing a bit of a hoo-ha in Australian politics. This gets to fundamental questions
0:27.0	of free speech and dissent and how to wrestle with social media companies and this grand
0:34.8	universe of algorithms that has been unleashed on us in recent years.
0:39.4	The bill that has been passed by the Australian House of Representatives is called the
0:43.4	Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Bill.
0:48.4	Talk about an Orwellian title, the Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Bill.
0:54.5	And it has a lot of civil libertarians worried.
0:57.5	It has a lot of constitutional law experts worried.
1:01.0	It seeks to, in the words of the bill, impose obligations on digital communications
1:07.7	platform providers, that is, social media companies, Facebook, Twitter,
1:12.7	TikTok, YouTube, in relation to the dissemination of content on a digital communications
1:18.0	platform that contains information that is reasonably verifiable as false misleading or deceptive
1:24.8	and is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm.
1:29.8	So a lot of people are saying, well, how do you define and who decides what information is
1:35.4	false misleading or deceptive and what is or is not a serious harm? I was terrified, frankly,
1:42.8	by this potential law and was afraid that shows like mine and people who have dissenting opinions about a whole range of different things, whether that is the vilification of minorities, you know, because they have a different idea about, for example, biological sex
2:01.9	or whether that is some dissenting opinion about a public health concern, that those people
2:07.7	could be subject to prosecution by the Australian government.
	...

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