Thread

US criticises Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out laws as 'censorship'

112 points · 148 comments · 1659447091

nomilk · 1790133002 · focus · HN ↗
As is common in political shenanigans, the draft bill has a euphemistic label ('algorithmic opt-out') - what it actually does is allow unspecified bureaucrats such as the Minister for Communications to designate any individual piece of content as 'harmful' and have it banished from the internet.
As an Australian who just wants relatively free access to information (and the ability to freely/easily discuss it), it's frustrating.
And it's not the first time the Australian government has done this; last year they banned U16 from social media, several weeks later everyone was alerted to Bondi by... social media.. so they could get the heck out of there, but U16... they were left clueless and unable to get updates (news sites ran 30+ minutes behind real-time events and official sites like NSW Police took 70+ minutes to even announce there was a shooter).
1. gregoryl · 1790133851 · focus · HN ↗
  We elected a central-left government, and somehow ended up with center right. Its deeply frustrating.
  1. maximus_01 · 1790134000 · focus · HN ↗
    The days of the left being more supportive of free speech than the right are long over
    linkregister · 1790135521 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, nah, the Australian right has been casting pro-Palestinian speech as anti-semitic.
    In the States, the right has been supportive of government suppression of speech, including the communications agency (FCC) threatening broadcasters into cancelling an interview with a politician in the opposition party. The right's free speech record is far worse in the US and Australia.
    Admittedly, neither side of the aisle have good free speech practices in most of the rest of the world.
    bamboozled · 1790135876 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    bigyabai · 1790136115 · focus · HN ↗
    Palestine can exist alongside Israel. You are the only one "picking sides" here.
    bamboozled · 1790136190 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s precisely my point. Those people will have to learn to live side, and it’s not going to happen when people are taking sides, buying into propaganda etc.
    Like I said, it’s not a football game where you run around Sydney with your face painted screaming “from the river to the sea” it will solve nothing.
    bigyabai · 1790136370 · focus · HN ↗
    Palestine isn't annexing neighboring nations or refusing humanitarian corridors to starving civilian populations.
    It's okay to be pro-Palestine if you want to promote peace. Likud certainly isn't making any headway on rapprochement.
    bamboozled · 1790136722 · focus · HN ↗
    I guess the issue was October 7 happened , which was an attack on a “peace and love” festival full of teenagers. Was that too a promotion of peace ?
    I’m not saying there is a right side. I’m saying both sides have issues. Hence my point about being anti-war being a better option.
    linkregister · 1790139255 · focus · HN ↗
    There's some merit to your viewpoint because Hamas was at one time democratically elected. I don't think there's a strong case for claims that the majority of Palestinian people supported the October 7th attack on either military or noncombatant targets. One being that the majority of Palestinians were not of voting age at the time.
    October 7th being an illegal attack justified a military response from the Israeli Defense Forces to secure their border, and most of the world agreed. Opposition solidified when IDF conducted mass destruction of civilian structures and independent observer-corroborated systematic murder of noncombatants, many of whom were children.
    While two wrongs don't make a right, it's justified to support a people who are the victims of a genocide according to credible observers.
    bamboozled · 1790158433 · focus · HN ↗
    I agree, I just don't think you can really be only "pro-palestine" because it's sort of like the same thing in reverse.
    If Hamas was in-charge of the situation , what do you think would happen to Israelis, you think they'd be well looked after by Hamas?
    What should be happening if we had good world leadership is Israel would be bought under control through sanctions, we'd investigate and prosecute war criminals on both sides and the world would help eliminate Hamas and Iran (because they help Russia kill people in Ukraine) and support Hamas, but yeah, not in that world.
    Realistically October 7 was a huge, huge disaster for the Arabs in the region.
    linkregister · 1790173643 · focus · HN ↗
    Your dogged equating of support for the Palestinian people with support for Hamas is elevating a minority view.
    This would be like my claiming that all Liberal Party of Australia members hate aboriginals. Many do, but that is not how the majority of Liberals see it. Or a claim that all US Republicans are racist. Not sure what nationality you are, but you should get the picture.
    bamboozled · 1790176632 · focus · HN ↗
    Are you saying that most Palestinians don't believe in Hamas, or their message? At one point they were elected...
    Have you ever read this? <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas" rel="nofollow">https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas
    Anyway, it's ironic because if you look at all the hate directed at Israel, you could only draw the same conclusion. People hate Israelis, even though it's largely their government doing the fighting ?
    If you read that doctrine, you will see propaganda is a major part of Hamas' modus operandi, and many westerners fall for it too. It's actually amazing how many point form the 1998 charter people seem to be repeating now, in 2026.
    Back to my point really, if you gave control of the area back to Hamas (because who else would run things), what do you think would happen to innocent people in Israel? If all the people who attended those protests were successful, what do you think the outcome would be ?
    linkregister · 1790183950 · focus · HN ↗
    I think you have a genuine dogmatic blind spot here.
    1. Popular "pro-Palestinian" movements in the West largely do not support Hamas. Sometimes its iconography appears! Just as Nazi iconography sometimes appears at Republican events. This does not imploy majority support!
    2. Belief the genocide of the Palestinian people should be halted does not imply support for Hamas.
    3. Palestinian self-rule does not necessitate an armed Hamas leadership of the Palestinian territory.
    4. Support for Palestinian people and condemnation of the Netanyahu government does not imply an anti-Jewish belief. The majority of American Jews condemn Netanyahu!
    There is something in your belief system that erroneously tightly couples Hamas with Palestine. Hamas control of the Gaza strip is only a decade old.
    imawakegnxoxo · 1790139414 · focus · HN ↗
    We have nothing to do with this war, and just because "one side invaded the other" does not make either of them right - both sides have been murdering each other over religious garbage for 100s of years
    This isn't our business and we shouldn't be involved
    Thinking that we, as Australians, need to get involved looks to me like "aw these poor little brown people don't know what they're doing they need a big strong white man to sort it out!"
    Picking a side here isn't advocating for peace it's posturing
    linkregister · 1790140408 · focus · HN ↗
    > both sides have been murdering each other over religious garbage for 100s of years
    The Mandate for Palestine and Jewish resettlement started in 1917 after the first world war.
    Unless you're talking about the Roman expulsion of Jews from Judea in the 2nd century CE? The claim is still quite a stretch.
    imawakegnxoxo · 1790146051 · focus · HN ↗
    I did specify over religious garbage and not over this specific piece of land
    Regardless, the point is we aren't "fighting for peace and freedom," we're just murdering a bunch of people in a different country over something we have nothing to do with
    linkregister · 1790138631 · focus · HN ↗
    The majority of supporters of Palestianian people are not doing that.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.