Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has courted the American president and boasted of the results. In October 2025, the two men signed a critical minerals framework at the White House. Albanese told reporters that “our historic critical minerals framework is going to see us break new ground together” and that “this means more jobs in Australia, it means more resilience for our economy.” He described the meeting as “as warm and friendly as you saw.”The framework commits the two governments to “a combined $3 billion towards an $8.5 billion future pipeline of priority critical minerals projects in Australia.”
But on Monday the Albanese government introduced draft legislation that would let the government impose sweeping censorship on American social media platforms, including X, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, and perhaps even on Americans, for practically any reason whatsoever, with the transparent intention of silencing rising public opposition to mass migration. One section lets the government censor “any other material or conduct” that the Communications Minister “is satisfied may cause serious harm.”
That could, in practice, be anything, including criticisms of mass migration and Muslim migrants following terrorist attacks, like the one last December when a father and son, inspired by the Islamic State, killed 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, rabbis, and a Holocaust survivor, at Bondi Beach, a popular site for Jewish Australians, during an annual celebration of Chanukah by the Sea. Australians who complain that migrants bring terrorism could find themselves censored by social media platforms under orders from the government. A platform facing an up to A$109.2 million penalty has every incentive to suppress posts about protests that involved any unlawful act.
In July, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) presciently warned that the Bondi tragedy was being used by the government “as an excuse for internet censorship and surveillance.” Albanese has already said One Nation, a right-wing populist party in the mold of AfD and RN in Germany and France, would “peddle misinformation and disinformation.” When asked about whether the legislation would allow her to censor misinformation, Communications Minister Anika Wells said, “We can emphatically rule that out.” But the legislation would allow her to censor anything that “may cause serious harm.” Last year the Albanese government claimed anti-mass migration protesters were linked to neo-Nazis.
This could upset the Trump administration, which has made defending American social media platforms and free speech a high priority.
