Source : Perth Now news
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says the free speech claim at the centre of a High Court challenge to the social media ban for under 16s “doesn’t stack up”.
Social media platform Reddit and a free speech advocacy group will on Tuesday make the case that the 11-month-old ban impinges on Australians’ implied freedom of political communication.
But Mr Malinauskas – who led calls for age restrictions on social media – said the argument was “plainly not true”.
“The idea that social media is central to the function of our democracy just doesn’t stack up,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast.
“I mean, we’ve had a democracy in this country with civil, healthy political discourse, freedom of speech, for a very long time before social media ever came along.
“And I think that there’s an argument to make that it makes it worse, not better.”
He said the motivation of the ban could not be forgotten.
“The reason why we have this law in Australia and the reason why now every month it feels like a new country is announcing they’re going to do the same is because of the interests of children,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“This is about protecting children from a platform that we definitely know through peer review research is doing them harm.”
He said it is “no different to regulating cigarettes or alcohol”.
“What we say is, look at an appropriate age you should get access to it. And in this case, that’s the age of 16,” he said.
Social media ‘common source of news’
Reddit argued in its submission argued in its High Court submission that social media platforms are a “common source of news and political information”.
It highlighted its “Ask Me Anything” sessions, which lets users put questions directly to political figures.
It is making the challenge with the Digital Freedom Project – a group led NSW state Libertarian MP John Ruddick.
Speaking outside the High Court in Canberra ahead of the two-day hearings, Mr Ruddick branded Anthony Albanese a “tyrant”.
“People say this is the beginning of the slippery slope – I’m sorry, we’re well past the slippery slope,” he said.
“We need to fight back.”
He the said the only way to stop “re-litigating the free speech matter” is a “constitutional amendment” explicitly guaranteeing free speech.
Reddit only big social media platform involved in challenge
Mr Ruddick said he was not worried that Reddit was the only tech company to join the lawsuit after he said he had discussions with a number of Silicon Valley companies.
“I can’t speak on their behalf, but they were sympathetic to our case. They don’t like censorship themselves,” he said of the big tech companies.
“They didn’t give us reasons why they didn’t want to get involved.
“I suspect they may have thought that it wasn’t a good look for a foreign company, a bit large, powerful foreign company, to be intervening in Australian politics.
“But I think that was the wrong call, and I think Reddit’s got the right call.
The world-first policy came about after News Corp Australia’s The Let Them Be Kids campaign warned that Australia was “losing a generation”.
The campaign exposed the psychological, social, physical and emotional harm social media was inflicting on Australian children, with families who lost their children to suicide adding their voices calling for reform.
More to come
