Online disinformation prevention bill under scrutiny
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the government’s disinformation and misinformation prevention bill, criticising dissent from the Coalition. Albanese is forging ahead with this bill, which is a holdover from the previous government and initially proposed in March of 2022.
The bill, which is currently in a consultation phase, has garnered negative reactions from several groups. The Australian Human Rights Commission, the Law Council of Australia and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance all have voiced concerns about the vagueness of the bill. Their concerns include vagueness of terms within the bill, unreasonably low threshold for violating the proposed law, and unfair distribution of power to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The Wire’s Steven Samaras spoke with Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay about the Prime Minister’s comments.