Imagine if the police were allowed to open all your letters, or listen in on all your telephone calls, without a warrant. Imagine if the police were allowed to eavesdrop on all your conversations with your friends. Imagine if the state was keeping track of everyone you dated, slept with, or even asked out.
What if the government tracked everything you said and did, in order to make sure you were “behaving”?
Sounds like a dystopian nightmare, doesn’t it? Just the sort of thing the Chinese Communist Party does, with its Orwellian “social credit” panopticon domestic spy system.
Yet this is exactly what Australians are facing. New Zealand readers take note, too: don’t be surprised if the “Christchurch Call” Ardern government goes down a similar road.
Police would access Australians’ private social media accounts and dating apps to crack down on high-tech harassment and abuse, with anonymous accounts banned under radical reforms being considered by the Morrison Government.
Australians would be forced to submit 100 points of identification, such as a passport or driver’s licence, before setting up or maintaining any social media account, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Tinder, under recommendations by the federal parliamentary inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence.
This proposal contravenes basic human rights principles, such as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or the US Fourth Amendment: namely, that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence”.
Worse still, it will do absolutely nothing to deal with any of the complaints listed by the inquiry.
In a shocking report released today, the parliamentary committee warns that abusers are using dating and pornography sites to humiliate ex-partners and using smart TVs and pets to spy on them.
Surveillance devices had been planted on pet collars and kids’ toys, or smart TVs and household appliances hijacked to spy on victims[…][Inquiry chairman Andrew Wallace, a Liberal MP] said technology was making it easier for DV offenders to control and spy on their partners.
“Perpetrators are immobilising cars once they’ve gone a certain number of kilometres from the family home, or they have frozen or boiled people out of their homes by controlling the temperature on the airconditioner,’’ he said[…]
Family Planning NSW told the inquiry about “reproductive coercion’’, with men sabotaging or controlling access to contraception, or forcing women to have an abortion.
How will the government spying on people’s social media stop them from planting hidden cameras? Immobilising cars? Controlling “smart” devices?
Besides, anyone tech-savvy enough to remotely control an air-conditioner will almost certainly use a VPN to escape the Australian government’s control.
So all this will do is subject the law-abiding and innocent to constant government surveillance.
More to the point, are the problems it might – might – solve really as bad as the inquiry claims?
Only two people have been convicted of sharing revenge porn since the federal government made it a criminal offence nearly three years ago, with just three more cases before the courts.
Of course, activists claim that a dearth of convictions proves that laws aren’t strong enough: in other words, they’re presuming guilt, in direct contravention of the most fundamental premise of our legal system.
Certainly, they never stop to consider that it might mean that the problem isn’t nearly so widespread as they claim.
There is also the likelihood that this could be used as a tool to facilitate harassment and abuse. It’s already well known that Apprehended Violence Orders can be and are being abused. In a notorious case, a woman took out an AVO against her ex-husband, claiming that he had sexually abused their daughter. Even though two judges had found that no such abuse had occurred, the AVO was granted – thereby creating a presumption that the man had abused his daughter.
Above all, this is using the sledgehammer of a Stasi state to crack a nut.
The contentious change would prevent people from setting up anonymous accounts, and make them liable for defamation suits or even criminal prosecution for menacing messages or harassment.
People already are liable for using a common-carrier service to menace or harass. So what this really comes down to is the government wanting a 24/7, all-access spy system.
Inquiry chairman Andrew Wallace, a Liberal MP, said “there is merit to removing the veil of anonymity’’ online.
“If you know you could be tracked down by the police or the e-safety Commissioner for bullying, cajoling or harassing someone on social media, people will be much more careful about what they say or do,’’ he told News Corp Australia.
Daily Telegraph
And, purely coincidentally, when people know the government is effectively reading their mail and listening to their phone calls, they won’t be inclined to, say, organise anti-government protests or even express criticism of government policy.
No doubt, the Ardern government – already sending goon squads to knock on Kiwis’ doors for criticising the government online – will be watching all this with great interest.
The draconian lockdown policies aren’t the only thing the governments of Australia and New Zealand are copying from Communist China.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD