The eSafety Commissioner’s
big, tax-funded eraser

Online magaine Reduxx, which bills itself as “Pro-Woman. Pro-Child Safeguarding. Anti-Bullsh*t” recently followed up on a story first aired by the Daily Mail, that of an American-born man who has been leading the goal-scorers’ table in the NSW League One Women’s 1st Grade soccer competition. The Mail reported that “thousands” of complaints had been received about his involvement in the league and, further, that parents are up in arms over on-field injuries allegedly inflicted on bona fide females.

When Reduxx named the man, which The Mail declined to do, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner demanded that Twitter zap the tweet, insisting it breaks the law to make mention of the controversy even though hundreds, possibly thousands, of players and parents know all about it and hold various firmly held opinions.

Just why it is illegal to cite the name of a player openly mentioned in league records is a mystery. Likewise, why is it illegal to publish a photo of a player snapped in public on taxpayer-funded playing fields?

What is somewhat easier to grasp is that eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, another American and a World Economic Forum functionary, believes she has been given the tools, authority and budget to make sure free speech is heard only in the nicest, most narrative-friendly ways. From her biography at the eSafety Commission’s website (emphasis added):

In 2021, Julie oversaw significant increases in the eSafety office’s budget, increased staffing levels and launched the global Safety by Design initiative. As Commissioner, she has led work to stand up novel and world-first regulatory regimes under the new Online Safety Act 2021, with implementation of a sweeping new set of reforms beginning on 23 January 2022. Commissioner Inman Grant was reappointed for a further 5-year term by the Australian Government in January 2022.

Meanwhile, while Twitter has bowed to Ms Grant’s demand and hidden the Reduxx tweet from Australian eyes, as it was obliged to do by that ‘novel and world-first regulatory regime’, the tweet remains intact for the rest of the planet to see and ponder.

Your taxes, fellow Australians, hard at work to keep us ignorant.

— roger franklin