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We do have some utterly bizarre shit going down in Australia, like this: https://www.maddocks.com.au/insights/high-court-confirms-media-outlets-are-liable-for-d

We do have some utterly bizarre shit going down in Australia, like this: https://www.maddocks.com.au/insights/high-court-confirms-media-outlets-are-liable-for-defamatory-facebook-comments https://www.maddocks.com.au/insights/high-court-confirms-med... > the decision of Justice Rothman of the Supreme Court of NSW in Voller v Nationwide News Pty Ltd, extended the reach of defamation law such that media outlets could be held liable as ‘publishers’ for defamatory Facebook comments made by third parties on the media outlets’ Facebook posts. But it was a Judge, not the government. And it was the big media that as targeted, not Joe Citizen. Yet the net effect was a curtailment of Joe Citizen's ability to broadcast their thoughts on the news of the day, and how it was reported. The size of the penalty his honour handed out and the broadness of the ruling meant there was only one sane response from the media giants: heavy moderation of their comment sections, or shut them down. They mostly chose shut down. Heavy moderation is very expensive, so I don't blame them. The end result has been a biggest reduction of internet speech, comment and civil discourse triggered by news events I've seen in 20 years. Yet it strangely goes mostly unmentioned. Instead we get these conspiracy theories. I guess a conspiracy theory is more titillating than gross incompetence by one powerful individual. If want to go for conspiracy theories try this: why the haven't the law makers drafted a new law to fix the judicial mistake?

dmix 4y ago
The governments are largely just a product of the nosiest citizens. So there is always a connection to 'Joe Average'. You see defenders of censorship all over HN these days, especially by people from the UK and Australia. The people saying "it's nothing to worry about because it only happens to bad people who deserved it" sort of defenses that pop up early on. Then when authoritarianism naturally grows larger and larger people only blame the politicians, not the people defending it every chance they get.

dmix 4y ago

The governments are largely just a product of the nosiest citizens. So there is always a connection to 'Joe Average'. You see defenders of censorship all over HN these days, especially by people from the UK and Australia. The people saying "it's nothing to worry about because it only happens to bad people who deserved it" sort of defenses that pop up early on. Then when authoritarianism naturally grows larger and larger people only blame the politicians, not the people defending it every chance they get.