Release: Attorney-General Christian Porter takes a swing at freedom of speech

Release: Attorney-General Christian Porter takes a swing at freedom of speech

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, the nation’s largest grassroots advocacy group representing taxpayers, today condemned Attorney-General Christian Porter for his recommendation that defamation law consider social media companies publishers, so holding them responsible for the content of all posts. Such a change would invariably lead to mass censoring.

“Many untruths run rampant across social media spreading misinformation. But to require censoring, as laid out in Christian Porter’s proposed change to defamation law, would infringe on the freedom of all Australians to speak their ideas publicly,” said ATA Policy Director, Emilie Dye. 

“Rather than ‘leveling the playing field’ between between traditional and social media by holding both responsible for every comment made by the general public, the law should hold them responsible only for the comments made by their staff.

“A paper’s editor reads every piece before it goes into print and determines whether that article is true, relevant, and aligns with the image the paper is attempting to present. Twitter would need to hire a few million people to read each tweet before it goes live.

“Social media regularly hosts fake news and outright lies. But it's only through a variety of views and much debate that we can hope to arrive at truth. The average of many people guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar reveals a much more accurate answer than one jelly bean expert making his calculation. 

“By changing defamation laws, the government makes social media outlets the guardians of truth and accuracy. But what truth would they choose? And if they chose wrong, who could object? This change would silence the world and further blur the lines between fake and real news.”