The Australian government has announced plans to make the sharing of memes on social media a criminal offence, punishable by prison and/or a hefty fine.
During a press appearance, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese categorised memes making fun of him with “misinformation” he is claiming should be made illegal and purged from the internet.
“Social media platforms have a responsibility to make sure that misinformation isn’t got out there,” Albanese declared.
Modernity.news reports: He continued, “I noticed today, for example, on the way up here, they’ve removed various sites that were up containing fake images of myself superimposed on other people.”
“That’s the sort of thing that is going on, on social media. Social media has a responsibility to do the right thing here,” he further asserted.
As we earlier highlighted, Albanese and his government are at war with Elon Musk, after the X owner refused demands to remove all copies of a video of Christian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being attacked by a Muslim extremist last week.
Australia’s so called ‘eSafety Commissioner’ Julie Inman-Grant, an unelected official, has ordered both X and Meta to remove footage of the stabbing under the Online Safety Act, passed in 2021, which empowers the eSafety department to demand the removal of so-called ‘class 1 material’.
Musk urged that “no president, prime minister or judge has authority over all of Earth! This platform adheres to the laws of countries in those countries, but it would be improper to extend one country’s rulings to other countries. If he [wants] to censor things in other countries, he should bring a legal action to bear in those countries.”
The Australian government has also proposed a so-called misinformation bill, released as a draft last year.
If passed into law, it would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to require online platforms to remove or restrict content considered “false, misleading or deceptive, and where the provision of that content on the service is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm,” according to the wording of the draft legislation.
Albanese’s wish to see memes completely removed from the internet betrays just how insanely out of touch with reality he is.
And, of course, it has just prompted the world to make millions more memes of him.
