Friends — I recorded a short video yesterday after a meeting at the Australian Parliament. It blew up on X and Instagram, so I thought I'd share it here. — Michael
Well, that was wild. I'm at the Australian Parliament and just left a meeting with two governing-party staffers. They told us that the government needed more power to censor things like the upcoming US execution of Nidal Hasan.
When I asked why they needed to censor that video, one said it was to prevent copycat killings. Copycat killings by governments? I asked. Er, no, they said. Copycat killings like that of a backpacker, several decades ago.
So, under that logic, I pointed out, the government should censor things like last year's Bondi massacre, where two Muslims killed 15 people, no? Well, they said that was news. Didn't they realize their bill would allow the government to censor news? They didn't seem to know, or care.
They also admitted they didn't know the bill would allow the government to create and operate an unlimited number of fake social media accounts to attack its political enemies and spread disinformation.
