NSW Government Cracks Down on Peaceful Protest

The NSW Labor government is causing controversy by trying to prevent climate activists from live-streaming their protests on Facebook across the country. The premier, Chris Minns, plans to meet with social media giant Facebook and police to stop the broadcast of illegal protests.

While some opposition leaders support the idea, civil liberties advocates and digital rights groups oppose it, saying it's a threat to freedom of speech and democracy. Human rights activists also argue that peaceful protest is a fundamental right that should not be silenced in the face of the climate emergency.

Blockade Australia staged and streamed nationwide protests against the coal industry last week, making use of Facebook Live, which the premier has deemed illegal.

The chair of Digital Rights Watch, Lizzie O’Shea, said the comments were something that she would “expect to hear from the People’s Republic of China, not from a Labor NSW premier.

O’Shea said it wasn’t clear how it could be implemented technically, or how Meta would be able to distinguish between what protests are allowed to be streamed and what would not be allowed.

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Josh Pallas, accused the premier of attempting to shut down freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

“Trying to shut down protesters’ use of Facebook is yet another example of the way that freedom of public assembly in NSW is being attacked by successive governments,” he said.

He said interference from governments in the way protesters used Facebook would set a “precedent where private enterprises are called on to acquiesce to the will of the government of the day in stifling speech”.

- CyberBeat