Twitter Documents uncover miniature administration of Coronavirus contradict
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Australia's Department of Home Affairs - usually responsible for dealing with terrorism and border security - sent more than 4,000 requests to US tech giants to review content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic years.
The revelations come after a Freedom of Information request (pdf) by Senator Alex Antico and highlight the extent to which government agencies have attempted to control public debate on issues such as vaccine effectiveness, blocking and masking.
Between 1 January 2017 and 15 December 2022, the Home Office made 4,213 "referrals for COVID-19-related content" to digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to assess content against their own terms of service - the highest since the pandemic 2020 to 2021.
Home Affairs also sent 9,423 "referrals relating to terrorism and violent extremists" over the same period.
However, other information was unavailable or heavily redacted.
Centre-right Liberal senator Antic said the fact the Australian government was working with overseas social media companies to censor citizens' views "should concern us all".
“The system used by the Home Office was created to remove terrorism-related material, however 'mission creep' into public health matters demonstrates that we must always be vigilant about the powers of the bureaucracy. ” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
Antic called for a full royal commission inquiry into the handling of the pandemic at all levels of government.
Who is to say that the same powers will not be used to curate and censor matters relating to the Voice of [Indigenous] Parliament or to censor posts challenging climate alarmism? he added.
“It is also worrying that this seems to be a pattern that is being adopted in many parts of the Western world (as we have seen from the Twitterfiles scandal in the United States).
The Home Office did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Twitter files reveal the extent of discourse management
Australian journalist Andrew Lowenthal discovered that Twitter worked closely with the Home Office to censor objectionable content.
Lowenthal, who has been digging through Twitter files in collaboration with American journalist Matt Taibbi, discovered 18 emails requesting the removal of 222 Twitter posts.
One such email contained a signature from a senior analyst working on Extremism Insights and Communication within Home Affair's "Social Cohesion Division," according to Racket News.
The posts to be removed included a meme depicting Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wearing a mask with the words: "This mask is as useless as I am."
While another targeted account had just 20 followers and one post was aimed at claims that then-Health Secretary Greg Hunt had used "emotionally manipulative language".
“With the end of the war on terror, the intelligence community has focused on countering violent extremism. This in turn provided wider cover for censorship of disadvantaged inside groups, such as vaccine skeptics or even just anti-blocking activists,” Lowenthal wrote.
“[The Home Office] have rarely provided evidence for their counter-claims, and where they have, they rely on 'fact-checking' organizations such as Yahoo! and USA Today, rather than Australia's own scientists."
Big Tech checkpoint for authorities
Twitter files were released following tech billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of the social media giant, revealing the platform suppressed or removed content on a range of issues, including irregularities in the 2020 election, Hunter Biden's laptop and handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August of last year, leaked documents revealed that 50 officials in the Biden administration pressured major tech companies to crack down on alleged misinformation.
Similar efforts are underway in Australia to punish health professionals who speak out against the official narrative.
For example Dr. North Brisbane-based William Bay has been suspended after he interrupted the Australian Medical Association's national conference at the end of July 2022 and told attendees to stop forcing vaccines on people.
In September 2021, anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Oosterhuis suspended after two "anonymous complaints" were filed regarding his social media activity where he questioned the effectiveness of blocking and PCR tests.
While in June 2022, a nursing student successfully overturned her university professor's decision to suspend her after she expressed doubts about the vaccine during an informal internship interview.
“Questioning the scientific evidence for vaccine safety, if done rationally, could hardly, if ever, be considered a violation [of the nursing code of conduct]. Nor pointing to the possibility of long-term effects or the possibility of adverse effects in some clinical situations,” Judge Guy Parker wrote in his ruling.
