Feedback on the government’s proposal as outlined in its ‘Safer Online Services and Media Platforms Consultation Document’ is due Monday 31 July 2023.
Reality Check Radio’s (RCR) Legal Hub presenter Katie Ashby-Koppens says the document is about framing censorship laws aimed squarely at independent media outlets like RCR.
‘What is being proposed is a serious threat to free speech. These laws, if enacted, would make certain speech illegal under the guise of keeping us safe.’
RCR have created a template for feedback, available at defendfreespeech.co.nz. The template is designed to make the feedback process as quick and simple as possible.
‘Free speech is a fundamental human right, and it’s under serious attack. Without free speech, we’re not free,’ said Ashby-Koppens.
The proposed legislation will see the introduction of a ‘Regulator’ of online content, a ‘Ministry of Truth’ with power to develop codes dictating what can and cannot be shared online.
Of the proposal, Voices For Freedom wrote on their website:
‘This new Regulator will be empowered to make up its own rules to protect Kiwis from vaguely defined “unsafe” or “harmful” content that we apparently all need protecting from. The Regulator will approve codes of practice for platforms to comply with, requiring platforms to identify, moderate and take down “non-compliant” content.’
The government’s discussion document is available on the website of the Department of Internal Affairs.
Historically, people fighting tooth and nail to silence others have always been the good guys.
Always 😉👍
The lack of the ability to speak freely leads to fascism. After all, who is to say what is true and what is false, what is disinformation and misinformation?
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis thought that the Jews were the Untermensch, and they got their scientists (biologists) to “prove” it to be true (“trust the science”). If anybody objected, then were they guilty of disinformation and misinformation? And let’s be honest, the Waffen SS and Gestapo probably had “words” with them.
What about the people who were murdered in 1989 in Tiananmen Square in China. Their families (carefully) told the world what happened. Were they guilty of disinformation and misinformation?
Similar comments could be made against Communist Russia before 1991.
Perhaps now we are seeing what our democracies actually are. Was it Frank Zappa that said something like (and I am paraphrasing), “They will show you the illusion as long as it is profitable to do so. When it is no longer profitable, they will pack away the tables and chairs, remove the curtains and scenery and you will see the brick wall at the back of the stage”.
Well, welcome to the brick wall. The illusion has broken.
If people can’t speak their mind, they will find other ways to be heard.
BTW: the definition of fascism is the collaboration between government and corporations, including censorship and oppression of individual freedom.
New Zealand sadly fits that definition.
Fascism, pure and simple…it wont change what people think of these govt creeps either…in fact its more likely to see people meeting up and forming groups face to face….and those that stay on line will increase their anonymity/encryption….these govts are making their own live harder but too arrogant and controlling to see it….