Twitter Files Extra: The Australian government’s censorship requests

Matt Taibbi introduced this latest turn in the Twitter files:

TWITTER FILES EXTRA: by @NAffects, confirming (and expanding upon) a Monday report by "The Australian" about Covid censorship requests https://t.co/biM1HTtXFo

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) May 23, 2023

So… here… we… go!

1. Twitter Files Extra: The Covid Censorship Requests of Australia's Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The #TwitterFiles confirm a Monday report in "The Australian," showing the Australian government worked overtime to monitor Covid-related speech pic.twitter.com/Q0fczv6H8n

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

2. In the #TwitterFiles, Racket found 18 DHA emails, collectively requesting 222 tweets be removed. Jokes & true information were included in censorship requests, which came from the “Social Cohesion Division” of the DHA’s “Extremism Insights and Communication” office.

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

Social cohesion? The (American) Supreme Court once had something to say about the First Amendment and social cohesion:

Accordingly a function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. That is why freedom of speech, though not absolute, … is nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest. … There is no room under our Constitution for a more restrictive view. For the alternative would lead to standardization of ideas either by legislatures, courts, or dominant political or community groups.

Recommended

Captain Kirk Just Set Phasers To Vaporize

RickRobinson

Advertisement

Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949) (Citations removed.) Naturally, there is nothing wrong with the government promoting social cohesion by means unrelated to the suppression of speech, but to do it by censorship is wrong.

But of course creating a standardization of ideas is the entire point of these censors down under:

3. Or was that the "Extremsim" office? (As indicated in the email signature of one staffer) A group that can’t spell-check became the “fact-checking” authority for an entire nation (and beyond). pic.twitter.com/QrLsa9cx9S

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

And their censorship was not limited to their borders:

4. DHA seemed to deem itself sovereign over the entire Internet, targeting non-Australians under the spurious logic that they were “circulating a claim in Australia’s digital information environment.” Some claims were also true or at least contested – https://t.co/VHJd5JWmHU pic.twitter.com/FuLLnMY4N5

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

5. It’s not possible to establish what public health competencies existed within a team dedicated to “extremism” and “social cohesion,” that appear to have avoided making use of Government scientists and relied instead on Yahoo! and USA Today. pic.twitter.com/XJgO0COXtz

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

6. Even a humorous commentary on masks was deemed too much for the fun police. In one case, a mere reply to a tweet claiming “masks are useless” was considered to have contradicted “official information,” making it “potentially harmful” pic.twitter.com/Fb3CmA1oBR

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

7. The DHA used taxpayer money to target accounts of just 20 followers. DHA asked that one poster, who claimed to be a doctor, be actioned for discussing the use of steroids, which has since become common Covid-19 hospital protocol. https://t.co/Ko10rES4Ga pic.twitter.com/PVHhyjmAwj

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

8. The DHA went beyond even pretending to police mis- and disinformation. In one case, they argued a post should be removed because a user claimed the government — specifically the Minister for Health — had used “emotionally manipulative language.” pic.twitter.com/wJxtgf3qIh

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

9. The Australian stereotype of mocking self-important authorities went AWOL in the pandemic. The questioning that did occur was memory holed by the spell-checkers-turned-fact-checkers at the Department of Home Affairs “Extremsim” team. Full read: https://t.co/uFs0oBvo9y

— NetworkAffects (@NAffects) May 23, 2023

That link in turn links to the article in the Australian mentioned by Mr. Taibbi at the beginning, but its behind a paywall and we are cheap.

Some interesting reactions:

Governments went to war with their own people and no one seems to blink an eye.

— Klay Thompson (@Thompsonklay) May 23, 2023

Australia more than most.

The Australians should have never given up their guns.

— Stevo (@Stevewelds1) May 23, 2023

Will add this to the Twitter Files aggregation page. Contains all releases to date along with links to the original tweet threads.https://t.co/k4aJzvtuFl

— Crowdsourced News (@CrowdsrcNews) May 23, 2023

That seems like a useful resource.

***

Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Twitchy’s conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join Twitchy VIP and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get 40% off your VIP membership!