Ding dong, Australia’s misinformation-disinformation bill is dead

In the US, we can at least rely on constitutional protections that saw the sinking of the absurd Disinformation Government Board, established in 2022 to guide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in targeting the deliberate dissemination of false information. The advisory body, while lacking, according to the DHS, "operational authority or capability", was advertised as a council of wise creatures, working "in a way that protects Americans' freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy."

The Board was swiftly, to cite a word common in press coverage at the time, "paused" after a mere three weeks on suspicions that it would be unworkable and unconstitutional. "Legally, it is rarely permissible for the US government to be the arbiter of truth," wrote Jill Goldenziel for Forbes in May 2022. "The name suggested that it would do just that – despite DHS officials' protests that it was designed to protect free speech."

Despite these failings, the Board's former chair, Nina Jankowicz, has been busy promoting its ideas abroad, notably on the issue of electoral interference. Jankowicz, who markets herself as a disinformation expert, did her best in a visit to Australia to warn about malicious agents attempting to meddle in the Australian electoral system. On Radio National's Saturday Extra, she was unequivocal that the triumph of the "No" vote in the 2023 referendum held to decide whether an indigenous voice should be constitutionally enshrined, had been driven by some 9,000 digital accounts based in China. Never mind that the voters convincingly rejected the proposition. Despite admitting that one should still look "at the data" to verify her case, breezy speculation abounded. An indigenous voice to parliament could have threatened Chinese mining rights.

Joyce is only partly correct in assuming that this hideous bill perished in a fiery tip reserved for bad legislation. Its remains will be revived and reincarnated in due course, along with the justifications of danger, instability and chaos that arise when citizens traverse the World Wide Web unsupervised. And it is impossible to imagine a Coalition government, certainly one run by the paranoid Peter Dutton, resisting the temptations of restricting thought, content and communications expressed online.