Liberal senator says Coalition will vote against misinformation bill

Source: marketrent

3 Comments

  1. [By Olivia Ireland](https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-labor-to-deliver-consecutive-budget-surpluses-hezbollah-protesters-in-australia-may-face-police-visa-scrutiny-20240930-p5kegi.html?post=p57ntd#p57ntd):

    *Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume says federal Labor’s misinformation bill is a bad piece of legislation and the opposition will work to prevent it from passing.*

    *The legislation was introduced to protect Australians against misinformation, but Hume said it gives social media companies “unprecedented powers to decide what is misinformation”.*

    *“Of course, they won’t be punished if they take down too much, but they will be punished if they leave up too much, so there is an incentive, if you like, to censor public opinion,” Hume told Sky News.*

    *“The second issue is that it creates two tiers of public opinion. If you’re an academic, you can say whatever you want and that won’t be misinformation, but if you disagree with an academic, if you’re an ordinary Australian … well that could be considered misinformation,” she said.*

    *“Finally, there are unprecedented levels of power that have been bestowed upon the minister. That’s something we feel very uncomfortable with. The Coalition will always stand up for free speech.”*

  2. All for bills against disinformation in the media; not for misinformation.

    Disinformation is knowingly promoting and publishing false information; misinformation is unintentionally stating something false; you can’t make a bill against misinformation.

    Not sure if it’s the wording in the article, or in the bill itself, but legislation against misinformation shouldn’t be passed.

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