Spending my Sunday morning finishing a submission on the Online Safety Bill. Due by 5pm people! There's still time for you to do one! https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/consultation-bill-new-online-safety-act

Might be especially important this Valentines Day because the eSafety Commissions wants the power to refuse classification of content, and then force it to be taken off the Internet.
They're coming for your porn, or whatever the wowsers say is porn.

And you can bet that anything like Safe Schools will get reported constantly. Anything queer is going to get taken down pre-emptively.

We know how the eSafety Commissioner feels about content online, because they've written about it publicly.
"I have never been more fearful for the safety of children online than I am right now." https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/blog/protecting-children-should-always-trump-protecting-privacy

"Time and time again, governments and the technology industry have prioritised privacy and data protection over safety, and it’s time we all drew a line in the sand."
Nonsense. The Australian government has been eroding privacy and data protection for decades.

This is just the Commissioner getting salty about the EU promoting end-to-end encryption as a good thing. The Commissioner wants to side with the cops to backdoor encryption because *handwaves* bad people exist.

This is bullshit because it ignores the huge array of other powers and techniques the cops have to address this issue.
And it undermines one of the few things we have and know works to keep our data safe and secure!

I find it deeply weird that a Commissioner that apparently cares about violence against women would give cops even more ways to stalk their ex. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/03/afp_officer_pleads_guilty_over_stalking/

And let's talk about the liability shields in section 221 and 222.
The Commissioner (or their delegate) will be granted immunity from liability for damages caused as a result of them exercising their powers "in good faith".

That's to prevent you being able to sue eSafety for damages if they pull an ASIC and "accidentally" knock you off the internet. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/asic-accidentally-blocked-250,000-websites-ip-address/5701734

s221(2) also protects people doing as eSafety tells them. "Civil proceedings do not lie against a person in respect of anything
done by the person in compliance" with the various notices you can be given, such as takedown notices.

So if Facebook "accidentally" takes out your business page or Instagram, but they're doing it to comply with a notice, you can't sue them.

And let's talk about the new cop, judge, and jury powers of the Commissioner in this Bill. Remember how it's a bad idea to have all those roles be the same person? The government doesn't.

s 34(2) "An investigation under this section is to be conducted as the
Commissioner thinks fit."
Broad discretion to follow whatever process they make up from time to time.

This is mirrored in the other complaints investigation sections. Commissioner can investigate complaints about alleged cyber-bullying of children, or adults, or non-consensual intimate images, or any if something should be X 18+ or RC classified.

Part 14 gives the Commissioner broad investigative powers. You can be summoned to give documents or answer questions, under oath, and if you don't comply you get jailed for 12 months.

Also fined 100 penalty units ($22,200) per offence. So that's each question you don't answer and each document you don't produce.

Unless you're a journalist, for some reason. Great news for the unhinged cave dwellers at Sky After Dark, I guess.

Journalist sources are also exempt, and you also don't have to comply if you have a "reasonable excuse" (the burden is on you to prove you have one) or if you'd self-incriminate. So not *quite* as monstrous as it could be, but still wide berth to force people to give evidence.

The Commissioner can give information to foreign countries (including China and Russia? fun fun) if the foreign department is in charge of using online things "in a safe manner"… whatever that means.

Good luck being a student from Hong Kong, I guess. How much do you trust eSafety not to snitch on you to the CCP?