Trojan Horse to a surveillance state

The Albanese government is attempting to introduce legislation that will ban social media for anyone under the age of 16, and provided a 24 hour window for the public to make submissions to the government on this issue (submissions were also limited to two pages).

Due to the restrictions imposed on submissions, we chose not to focus on the obvious issues, such as:

the ease with which restrictions could be circumvented;
the disingenuous campaign to “protect” children by a media organisation with a public history of disregarding the safety of children ;
or the many and varied ways in which social media platforms could be regulated that did not require the wholesale surrender of identification by every adult in Australia.

Instead we have focused on less obvious but more pressing risks inherent in this bill, such as the intersection of the ID requirements for online safety with current anti terrorism laws, and how national security laws could be weaponised against users of social media.

The submission we made on behalf of the Australian Democrats is below:

Australian Democrats Submission

Overview

Privacy

Threats to Anonymity

Misuse

Stolen identification may be used to create accounts to undertake illicit activities under an innocent person’s name. The Democrats are concerned that bad faith actors in Australia and abroad may exploit ID requirements to identify whistleblowers or political opponents online, where their identity would otherwise remain anonymous (e.g. defamation).

Age Assurance Technology - Discrimination

Age assurance technology may unfairly target or impact individuals with neurological conditions or people with niche interests. For example, this may include people who have an interest in trains, cartoons or anime. It may also be ineffective at determining the age of an underage user if their interests or activities align with an older demographic.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

Millions of Australians use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as a tool to improve security and enhance privacy. VPNs will easily circumvent geo-protections. Prime Minister Albanese has noted that the government will ‘work around’ this but provides no details as to how. The government must come clean on whether it is proposing to ban or restrict VPNs, as it not only poses a pressing concern for individuals concerned with personal privacy – but businesses who rely on the security of these networks to protect sensitive information.

Centralised Identification System

Lyn Allison National President – Australian Democrats Senator for Victoria 1996-2008

Adrian Lozancic National Young Democrats Chair (Acting) Digital Safety Policy Committee