The United States government has warned Australia to halt its crackdown on free speech following the election of a left wing government for a second term. The Catholic Herald has the story.
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor demanded that the Labour government Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ceased censoring free speech on American social media platforms.
In a statement, it listed examples of totalitarian behaviour by the Albanese government that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump found “concerning”.
It included the decision of the Australian eSafety Commissioner to require Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, to censor Chris Elston, who campaigns against medical authorities giving puberty blockers to children.
Known as “Billboard Chris”, Mr Elston was censored after he posted a criticism of gender ideology, and used biologically accurate pronouns to describe an Australian transgender activist.
The State Department’s statement said the U.S. government was “deeply concerned about efforts by governments to coerce American tech companies into targeting individuals for censorship”.
“Freedom of expression must be protected – online and offline,” the statement said.
“Examples of this conduct are troublingly numerous. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened X for hosting political speech; Turkey fined Meta for refusing to restrict content about protests; and Australia required X to remove a post criticising an individual for promoting gender ideology.
“Even when content may be objectionable, censorship undermines democracy, suppresses political opponents, and degrades public safety.
“The United States opposes efforts to undermine freedom of expression. As @SecRubio [Mark Rubio] said, our diplomacy will continue to place an emphasis on promoting fundamental freedoms.”
Reacting to the news of the intervention, Mr Elston said: “It’s tremendous to have the State Department support what we all know is true: free speech is a fundamental right, critical to a democratic society.
“If our free speech can’t be protected when we speak out against the greatest child abuse scandal in the world right now, when can it be?”
Both X and Mr Elston, who was supported by ADF International and the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance, legally challenged the decision in Melbourne last month. The result is expected in the second half of this year.
Last month the U.S. State Department also expressed disappointment over the conviction of a UK Christian woman who held up a sign outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic saying: “Here to talk, if you want.”
It announced that it was “disappointed with the UK court’s conviction of Livia Tossici-Bolt for violating a designated buffer zone at an abortion clinic.”
It said: “Freedom of expression must be protected for all”.
Dr Tossici-Bolt, a 64-year-old retired scientist, was convicted of breaching a 150-meter exclusion or “buffer” zone when she displayed the sign over two consecutive days in March 2023.
District Judge Orla Austin, sitting at Poole Magistrates’ Court, gave her a conditional discharge and ordered her to pay prosecution costs of £20,000 by May 31.
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