Are we stuck in an episode of the series black-mirror ? As in the first episode of season 3, named Free fall, Internet users fear that their daily lives will be disrupted by the introduction of a social rating. A fiction that could well become reality.
This Monday, the “Healthy Living” account relayed a video straight from Australia. We see a morning news broadcast on the Australian channel 9now. The banner on the screen reads: “Social media security. New reform aims to stop online abuse”. Understand: “Social Media Safety. A new reform aims to put an end to online abuse”.
On Monday, this excerpt from the television news reappeared on Twitter. “AUSTRALIA – Social credit is introduced to access the internet, via a digital ID. Citizens need 100 identification points to use social networks and the police will have access to accounts, including private messaging. Welcome to dictatorship, “says the publication, retweeted more than 1,000 times since.
Only, this subject was broadcast more than a year ago and since then the mentioned reform has not been voted on. 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
If the video was released at the beginning of this week, it is well before its publication. We find a trace of the television news in question on the Facebook page of Today, the morning show of the Australian channel 9now. But the video was actually posted on April 1, 2021, so chances are the topic has since moved on.
On the same date of April 1, 2021, the 7news media published an article headlined “Federal government plans to force Australians to provide ID to use social media and dating sites”. At the time, the journalist explained that Internet users could be prohibited from creating anonymous accounts on social networks, as well as on dating applications. The rule would introduce the obligation to register one’s identity card to verify registration.
The article also explains that these recommendations were drawn up following the publication of a “shocking” report by a parliamentary committee which looked into malicious acts online. With anonymity, Internet users would indeed have no barrier to commit numerous abuses, without however receiving sanctions.
Prohibit anonymity
The next day, April 2, 2021, Perthnow media also publishes an article on this subject which titles: “The federal government considers identity checks to ban anonymous social media accounts, including Facebook and Tinder”.
This time, the article quotes the parliamentary committee: “In order to open or maintain an existing social network account, customers should be required by law to identify themselves on a platform using identification points , in the same way that a person must provide identification for a mobile phone account, or to buy a mobile SIM card”. These identification points are therefore more verification systems than a social note.
The article also recalls that at that time, Australians were not required to prove their identity through an official card, but only by verifying it through an e-mail or a telephone number. “The report is currently being reviewed by the federal government,” the journalist also adds.
Abandoned recommendations
Was this reform finally considered afterwards? In an article published in The Conversation on November 25 of the same year, legal scholar Shireen Morris explained that the recommendations of the parliamentary commission had ultimately not been successful. However, changes have been put in place on this subject. In June 2021, the Security Act was amended to require platforms to disclose the personal information of potential online stalkers.
In her analysis, however, the researcher recommends that the reforms be well justified “to ensure that they serve public rather than political interests” and that they will not compromise the privacy of users.