Making your voices heard: More of your submissions in opposition to the ACMA mis and dis-information legislation

You have 2 more days to have your say. Please don't miss out on this opportunity! Please note-this message is too long for email so you will need to read on the website by clicking the title.

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Below are more of your letters. Thank you to everyone who has sent copies to me at admin@myinformedchoice.com.au I have a funny feeling that some of you have ONLY been sending your submissions to me directly and not to ACMA. Please be aware that I won’t be forwarding any submissions. You need to go to the ACMA Website at this link, scroll to the bottom where you see the link that says Have Your Say, click on it and fill in the information and then send it off. We need tens or hundreds of thousands of people to do this and time is running out. As you can see below and in my previous substacks on this issue, your submission does not need to be long but it DOES need to be sent in before the 21st of August.

I would like to start this message with an email that my friend Dennis who I have known for many, many years and who has a large reach on email has sent to his subscribers to encourage them to send in their submissions. I think he gets it in one!

Hi intrepid truth tellers, If we miss the 20 Aug deadline for submissions, the good news is that we'll all get fitter; as the only way to then get truth out will be doorknocking, hand to hand or mouth to mouth; no internet carriers will be game enough to carry the truth any more. Is the fine for telling the truth, $50 million, a slow death or something worse, like listening to Albo?

Last week I phoned ACMA to ask some questions. The girl told me it wasn't to do with them and I should contact elsewhere and was going to tell me. I twice said, as she wouldn't answer my question, 'Would you not get greater powers under the legislation if it passes." My next question was going to be, "Is the government liable under the same laws for Disinformation and Misinformation? [No, they are exempted. If they weren't, I'd love to have a law to allow us to reveal the mistruths and distruths by agents for our pretend govts.

Her reply, "you are being [abusive or similar]" and hung up. Of course it wasn't abusive, though perhaps embarrasing. It's called getting your question answered. Similar to getting an answer from the Federal aboriginal Minister; virtually impossible.

Send a two minute email or better, letter and definately phone your local state and federal Members.

You letter or call may make the difference! Because they will certainly 'kill the bill' if enough of us say NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Love

den

PS. Is this exciting or what?

I do not consent to this bill being introduced.

In any democracy, we need to have the ability to debate contentious subjects or issues.  Debates are healthy.  We need everyone’s point of view. 

If this is no longer allowed and our opinions are not able to be expressed, this is now no longer a democracy.  This takes away our rights of “Freedom of Speech”.  The government will then have complete and utter control.  This is communism. 

Who determines what is misinformation and disinformation?  How can you put a committee of people into power to determine this?  People can and will be bought to silence the Australian people.  What may appear to be misinformation may actually not be.  The only difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is generally about 6 months. 

For many years, the tobacco companies pushed their product and it was supported by doctors.  Now we have warnings that smoking can indeed cause cancer.  Hence if the tobacco company had decided to pay enough money a few years ago to a “misinformation and disinformation committee” for approval, then that warning would never have been made public.  A committee did not exist then however it highlights that we should not be giving power such as this to a committee.  Healthy debates must continue.

It seems that certain groups of people will be excluded from censorship under the bill.  We have already seen how manipulated the main stream media was recently with the Covid debacle.  The media may have obeyed the government to continue to receive their advertising revenue.  Many opinions about the pandemic were squashed in the early days of the pandemic.  The government told us that mass vaccination would stop the virus.  This was a lie.  The vaccination did not stop the pandemic as it did not stop transmission and it did not stop people from acquiring the virus.  It failed. The adverse reports continue to increase.  People were harmed and some lost their lives.  The vaccine was far from safe and long term effects will be seen in years to come. 

Hence in concluding, I wish it known that I value “Democracy and Freedom of Speech”.  I do not consent to the ACMA Misinformation and Disinformation Bill being introduced which will silence us all. 

The ACMA should not be the decider/arbiter of what is mis or dis-information.  The answer to scientific or political controversies is more debate not more censorship.  I oppose law which can be used to increase censorship of potential fringe voices - compare with Israel and it's Tenth Man Rule."

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to write to you to formally notify you that I do not support any censorship in Australia and wholly oppose this legislation as above.

Along with many people in Australia, I absolutely oppose any laws which would empower ACMA or any other Australian body to restrict in any way our right to communicate freely and openly on any issue whatsoever.

Dear Authority Members, 

We write in response to the ACMA’s request for feedback on the proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 (the Bill). 

We absolutely oppose any form of censorship in Australia so don’t support this legislation in any way, shape or form. 

This is just another nail in Australia's coffin supporting dictatorship. 

We vehemently oppose any laws which would empower ACMA or any other Australian body to restrict in any way our right to communicate freely and openly on any issue whatsoever.

Thankyou for your time and consideration

ACMA AMENDMENTS

I do not support these proposed Amendments.  Australia already has more than sufficient laws in place to protect people from alleged hate speech or threats. 

ACMA should not be the arbiter of what is mis or dis-information the Government has been the leading purveyor of both.  A Government or Government agency which is a centralised authority who determines what is true or false becomes a dictatorship (Government will be your sole source of TRUTH).

In a free and democratic society we must have the freedom to have open and frank discussion, opinion and expression in any media that is available even if that opinion does not agree with someone else and even if the whole discussion does not have absolute facts.   These proposed amendments are truly censorious and censorship stifles robust discussion.

Government has been the purveyor of information that has been proven incorrect with specific reference to Covid-19.   If these censorious amendments are carried out then no challenge to disinformation or misinformation given by the Government and it’s agencies or the media influencers can be made. 

Conspiracy theories exist because Government does not tell the whole truth and individuals are left searching for truth and making appropriate decisions for themselves which is the foundation of a just and democratic society.  Some “Conspiracy theories” have been true given time.

Government is not consistent in investigating fully and at times do not convey all the facts either (as noted by Uluru Statement from the Heart documentation which is proven to be more that “one page” through an FOI application to NIAA).

As citizens it is our job to hold our Government and their agencies accountable and how can we do that if we are not allowed to question them which is what these amendments will censor I believe.

The best solution for disinformation/misinformation is free and open debate and not stifling freedom of speech and expression.

This Amendment also puts at risk the “freedom” we are supposed to have as a democratic nation to express our own views on digital media.  Are our own views and opinions to be censored in this way as we appear to head toward a Chinese Communist future?

Amendment 7 (2) (e) states “the person disseminating, or causing the dissemination of, the content intends that the content deceive another person.”  How would the oversight person calculate the “intention” of the person disseminating content?  How will ACMA determine if the person disseminating “intends” to deceive.

I also do not trust (as per the Fact Sheet provided) that the ACMA will not pressure digital platform services to require specific content or posts to be removed as the threat of penalties will be enough for digital media to over-censor submitted content.

These amendments are dangerous for everyone (apart from Parliament and ACMA) and I object to the amendments.

I am vigorously opposed to any form or censorship of the press or media in general. Let those who wish to consume nonsense and lies do so. In the 53 years of being involved in independent media I have remained active because the main stream media and sadly most politicians often fail to say anything or tell huge lies about what is going on in country and internationally.

ACMA

I oppose any form of censorship in Australia so I don’t support this legislation

You were elected to serve, not to rule or create rules. You can only do your job by listening to the people & allowing them to voice their differing opinions in any way they choose.

An opposing opinion can only be dangerous or hurtful to you if you choose to let it to be so. A far bigger danger is not knowing, or not being allowed to know, that there is another opinion. 

No-one is here to silence another voice or opinion. We learn by listening, & by considering other points of view.

“There is no harmony if we all sing the same note. “

With regards to the mis and dis information bill, this is a slippery slope to totalitarianism.

This is not about protection of citizens, it is about making sure that any criticism of the Govermment and their supporters is stifled.  The situation where the sitting Government gets to determine what is true and false and is exempt from the legislation itself, opens a veritable can of worms.

The sitting Government can then effectively eliminate all criticism of its progress and policies, and also ‘cancel’ or censor any individual, company or political party that threatens it’s stranglehold on power.  Who or what gets to define what is ‘true’?  The organization with the deepest pockets and the most to lose from questioning the current situation?

The past 3 years are an apt illustration of how ‘fact checkers’ can get situations so wrong, with the ‘truth’ at the start of the pandemic, being in hindsight, a totally manufactured reality.  Valid scientific research and experiences and discussion were severely stifled to the detriment of everyone, and people have been injured and died, and excess mortality is still at unprecedented levels.  This is still being denied, and no one will ask the questions publicly.  

With massive fines and jail time on the table, if this bill is passed, mean that this situation can only get worse.

The other issue with stifling debate and discussion is that there can be no progress, no hindsight, no free thought, and no democracy.  This mean that the status quo will religiously enforced and only existing ‘approved’ technology, data will be accepted.

Real science and progress welcomes questions and criticisms because that is how it becomes stronger.  Real critical thought is also fostered by free exchange of questions and challenges.

I do not approve of the proposed ACMA powers to combat misinformation and disinformation. I believe that every Australian should be free to voice our thoughts and ideas on any subject, as that is the best way for us to learn and progress individually and as a society. My grandparents migrated to Australia from Europe just a few weeks prior to the official declaration of WWII, in order to escape the injustice and danger caused by political suppression of human rights, freedoms and safety of large portions of the population, simply because of their political and/or religious views. Please do not create the same totalitarian limitations to our human rights in this land of Australia that has been a safe haven for freedom up until the recent government overreach in their response to Covid19. Since early 2020 our country has suffered oppression at the hands of our government, supported by mainstream media and big corporations. It's time to restore our constitutional and God-given rights and freedoms, not to further restrict them. 

I see there is legislation pending that will give ACMA new powers to combat so-called 'misinformation and disinformation.'
That's problematic, since in the past four years ACMA, the federal and state governments, and our legacy public media were easily the worst offenders in disseminating mis- and dis-information relating to the covid 'pandemic' and the extremely dubious 'vaccinations.'
Most adult Australians are quite capable of discerning truth from lies as long as freedom of speech and debate are permitted. Empowering any organisation, especially a government-funded one (independent or not) is a further step towards fascism or dictatorship.
I am against the proposed legislation.

I strongly do not approve of this Bill.  Australia does not need it and people do not need to be any more controlled than we currently are.

To whom it may concern,

Having been warned of the impending legislation regarding control of information within Australia most specifically regarding independent media and individuals, I was compelled to investigate the proposition and pen a response. Due to time away it has not been fully realised and is a little skittish, but hopefully conveys some sense of and justification for the concern felt.

It is argued that these new powers will enable the tackling of “harmful online misinformation and disinformation, while balancing freedom of speech.” In truth these new powers will nullify the possibility of balance where freedom of speech or exposition of truth and reality are concerned. These new powers are a gross overreach by design and they will be a stranglehold on democracy’s final throes.

“Misinformation and disinformation pose a threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy.”

This may be true, but it is not the online realm who pose the greatest risk nor certainly any one area’s exclusive domain.

All information may be at times portrayed in a manner not intended by those providers or creators of it.

Qualitative assessment of information, who makes this determination? Does this begin and end at a state/territory level? Federally? Or is it to be overseen and directives taken from international organisations? Where will it begin and end?

Energies and taxpayer finances would better be directed toward quality education.

This legislation and discussion thereof is disrespectful of citizens at multiple levels. Primarily it denigrates one’s ability to make their own determination. One cannot view seriously ‘our government’ as being concerned about threats to safety or wellbeing of Australians. To claim any government (especially Australian) of the past fifty years has had any concern for democracy, society, or the economy is equally ludicrous.

Proposed here is the abuse of a serious issue in order to commit a heinous level of interference. It is not legally tackling, this is an attempt toward blatant decapitation of civil liberties. We have already experienced this effect most prominently beginning with the Covid. This same method of manipulation has been rife and in full fruit for a very long time. Relatively recently, David Marr’s hit piece a prime example. Our apparently honourable and non-biased “journalistic” media conspired to remove then overwhelmingly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott from office.

It has been more conspicuous with Trump mania. This mania is a reference to media and all other pathologically afflicted folk who without reason despise Donald Trump, rather than those who appear to follow him with zeal. Neither dedicated party in most cases having adequately researched or considered their position.

“Covid misinformation/disinformation” cited. Is this the same information proven correct and never addressed by non-online (or the majority of online) media sources despite their having promoted the genuinely flawed information people relied on as though unimpeachably empirical with incredible diligence and urgency?

Or shall this legislation deal with proven government-stamped misinformation that led our population to accept untested pharmacological intervention under extreme duress without opportunity to appropriately discuss with medically trained doctors or even friends, colleagues, and family?

Proven misinformation that was indeed subsequently promoted and endorsed by medically trained doctors to assist uptake of probably dangerous intervention in accordance with the will of pharmaceutical giants and their primary stakeholders/shareholders?

Misinformation that was utilised by bureaucratic agencies of governments to disbar medical experts from practising or being able to suitably advise and treat patients?

Obviously not the kind of misinformation this legislation will be interested in. Nobody with any government connection is concerned about the information their misinformation has spawned. The legislation being pushed is a means to cover rumps and move on without scrutiny.

This period provides no grounds upon which to justify the establishment of such a body or enshrinement of powers to people based on some spurious claim to sovereignty of knowledge.

“Infodemic” as described within the Executive Summary of “A report to government on the adequacy of digital platforms’ disinformation and news quality measures” from June 2021    owes as much to the probable origins of the ideology of those presenting this advice to government.

It is a direct corollary of ‘disinformation’ and this term’s emergence within Soviet Communism. More doublespeak gobbledygook designed to overawe and articulate the idea of substance to an essentially insubstantial movement of absolutely negative people incapable of doing anything. Disinformation really is a stupid term. Information either exists or it does not, its quality has no bearing on its state.

“The propagation of these falsehoods and conspiracies undermines public health efforts, causes harm to individuals, businesses and democratic institutions, and in some cases, incites individuals to carry out acts of violence.The propagation of these falsehoods and conspiracies undermines public health efforts, causes harm to individuals, businesses and democratic institutions, and in some cases, incites individuals to carry out acts of violence.”

Public health efforts that are guided entirely by bureaucratic input against medical enquiry or consensus? Medical experts and enquiring scientific minds were shut out of discussion. Those with opposing viewpoints in any capacity were stripped of credentials and their raison d’être! This was championed and celebrated by gormless nitwits across the media spectrum but most acutely realised by the blanket media.

Social media was shamelessly weaponised to attack voices of reason and discredit reputations. At any other time this should have qualified as harassment and probably hate speech or at least encouragement toward harm, as people wished ill and death upon those who failed to share their point of view. (Really the government’s/pharmaceutical companies’ point of view.)

As for the apparent concern raised here of harm to individuals, businesses, democratic institutions? Fluff and drivel. If these entities lack the fortitude to withstand such assaults on their intelligence - which is highly unlikely - perhaps they need to experience the consequences. Most people grow beyond infants school level cognitive capability at least in late-early to middle adulthood.

Propagation of falsehoods and conspiracies? And in some cases inciting individuals to carry out acts of violence? Who composed this drivel? This reads like the maladjusted ramble of an undergraduate activist. Please advise further on these acts of violence. To my recollection there were no cases of violence perpetrated by anybody other than regulation criminals, or by the people who are supposed to serve and protect the public.

The police and military were given license to extend their remit to hitherto unknown regions. These were the tools used by our so-called democratically elected (but in effect undemocratic) government to pummel ‘their’ people. An extension of the derision those in government and their advisors hold for their constituents. Our government were the primary exercisers of violence.

Propaganda has been so effective in desensitising citizens to injustice, they have become spellbound and many championed the egregious activities of their government and enforcement agencies. This is evidence alone that there is already gross overreach.

Businesses across the country were crushed by misinformation and as you call it, disinformation. Thank heavens there was the nirvana of the internet to provide relief for anybody seeking clarity through the massive psychological operation designed to imprison and probably bring more substantial harm to them.

The internet is far from perfect but at least it does not pretend to be so. Unlike the government and the collegiate blanket media machine now completely under control of Communists. This is the desperate act of Communists who are terrified of the truth and the possibility people may have free and open access to it. There is good reason our democratic institutions are in question, it is because they are all gone. Their very being has been eroded to an irretrievable degree.

“Misinformation typically spreads via highly emotive and engaging posts within small online conspiracy groups. These narratives are then amplified by international influencers, local public figures, and by coverage in the media.”

This is the most incredible observation. It really is classic! Precisely the method by which the conspiring Communist movement have taken root and rapidly proliferated. Just like the highly emotive and engaging posts pertaining to falsehoods like the evolved “Global cooling/ozone layer hole/global warming/Climate Change” narrative. Now our very own Sarah Hanson Young cites the United Nations or some other criminal cabal in declaring we are living through a period of “global boiling!”

What are the affiliations of those parties who drafted these documents and are petitioning the Australian government to adopt their recommendations? Please detail exhaustively all affiliations of all involved down to their third cousins’ first Party meeting attendance.

“ providing financial assistance and grants to news outlets, government and not-for- profit organisations to bolster the spread of credible information and news.”

Here is the kicker. Those already at the trough will be lapping harder than their tongues can carry them. This is all about creating a state of absolute control through a global state of nouveau absolutism. It is money laundering and corruption of a colossal scale with the goal of crippling “western” civilisation.

One quickly realises this whole thing is a front when noticing the parties in question are already adherents to its outlined mechanisms - Google, Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter. These are all massive companies with government and military connections. Anybody that blindly trusts these organisations with information of any form let alone to self-regulate and responsibly adjudicate transfer of information needs help but not the sort of ‘help’ this programme brings. Discussion here of global involvement is all we really need to know.

These groups determined and continue to determine without any transparency the integrity of information. These essentially nameless faceless people were and are in charge of regulating the flow of information and asserting its validity.

This is especially important given the nature of these ‘platforms’ and the echo-chamber mechanisms upon which they thrive. They monetise fear, stupidity, and other human emotions and possible shortcomings or frailties. They like other forms of media including the traditional arms, prey on gullibility and abuse the contract of trust that extends between the broadcaster and their receiver.

This is not exclusive to internet or independent media as certain arbiters would like us to believe. It is most prominent within established branded media like commercial television networks (Seven, Nine, and Ten) and newspapers and the interminably charter-corrupting ABC/SBS.

It claims this agency will improve transparency. This is nonsense. The further development and implementation of this agenda will cede all hope for transparency. There will be only one source for acceptable information and anybody can and will be at their sword for straying into territory deemed unsuitable by government and their contractors. The purpose of this legislation to crush opposition.

There appears little need to venture beyond the Executive Summary of this particular document in knowing something terribly foul is afoot.

Reading through this document’s opening leaves me with even more questions as to our nation state and those informing or pretending to inform those in charge of its keeping.

Furthermore, using algorithms and Artificial Intelligence programmes to monitor all information and prohibit free discourse or dissemination of ideas is hardly a development our civilization requires, and introduces a much broader compass of concerns.

It really is humorously alarming that you feel it acceptable to continually cite democracy and its preservation as though it were your noble goal.

This is one of the most pernicious and cynical moves by any government in the Anglosphere. It unashamedly eviscerates democracy and feasts on its rich organs.

Those responsible for drafting this legislation and promoting it at any level have no right naming preservation of democracy as a source of inspiration nor intended goal, but that is the realm of pleasure through perversity upon which only deviants could delight.

Sincerely and greatly disturbed by the direction of this country

This Draft Comm. Legislation AMENDMENT COMBATTING Mis-Information and Dis-Information Bill 2023 is not acceptable by me/us because it is a tool to silence Families as is done in totalitarian/oppressive brutal regimes/governments.

Australian Families have had enough of the governments-National-Cabinet misleading AGENDA 2021-2030 Corona Virus Disease Propaganda which has now been scientifically established to have been a Planned Pandemic of MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION to cull the human herd= A DEPOPULATION ATTEMPT by experimental Co.Vi.D. as was planned and recorded @ EVENT 2O1 in New York on the 18th October 2019 ....

We say NO! to this inhumane Draft Leg. Bill 2023.

Thank You