A Freedom of Information request by Senator Alex Antic has revealed that the Australian Department of Home Affairs made over 4,000 requests to digital platforms to take down content related to Covid.
The FOI documents show that from the start of the pandemic up to December 15th 2022, the Department of Home Affairs (DOHA) referred 4,213 social media posts that officials believed to be in breach of Big Tech platforms’ community guidelines. This comes as a surprise, given that the Department’s purview includes border security, counter-terrorism and immigration, but not public health.
Covid social media posts were reported to platforms under the Online Content Incident Arrangement (OCIA). A copy of the OCIA was provided in the FOI response, however every page but the cover was redacted.
In Senate Hearings Monday, May 22nd 2023, DOHA representatives told Senator Antic that the OCIA was initially set up in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch shootings as a counter-terrorism effort to monitor and report Terrorism & Violent Extremist Content (TVEC). However, under the Scott Morrison Government, the Department was given the directive to, “lean in on Covid dis- and misinformation”.
Senator Antic responded:
What you’re describing, effectively there is a censorship industrial complex that arises out of the Department of Health, presumably ATAGI and the Therapeutic Goods Association (sic) directing traffic through the Department of Home Affairs to enforce that?
Secretary of the Department, Michael Pezzullo AO, did not accept this characterisation, however he told Senator Antic that DOHA did receive funding to monitor social media posts related to Covid on behalf of the Department of Health (DOH). The funding is set to end on June 30th 2023.
Assistant Secretary Catherine Hawkins stressed that DOHA is “not the arbiter of truth and we have no coercive powers” when it comes to determining what constitutes Covid dis- and misinformation and enforcing content take-downs. DOHA’s role is more like a social media hall monitor, reporting posts to social media platforms based on what violates their own community guidelines. Except that DOHA doesn’t actually do the hall monitoring itself – it outsources the task to a service provider.
This is one of a series of troubling revelations that hint at the possibility of a Censorship Industrial Complex at work in Australia.
Earlier this year, another release of FOI documents revealed that the DOH had emailed Facebook to flag a group that was sharing “vaccine reactions that are not substantiated”. Facebook responded that it had taken down the group.
The documents show that the DOH also emailed Twitter and Instagram to flag social media posts, including one that directly quoted the TGA’s Covid vaccine safety report. Twitter emailed back asking the DOH if there were any other Tweets that it would like the Twitter team to assess.
The DOH and Twitter also emailed about using Moments as a tool to push Covid vaccine information to users from “reputable sites” such as the DOH, the TGA, the Australian Academy of Science, the NCRIS and the WHO. The DOH also asked for assistance in managing paid dark posts on Twitter. Dark posts are targeted ads that show only in the feeds of targeted users.
All in all, from March 2020 to September 2022, the DOH spent almost $10 million on social media related to Covid.
(Credit to Twitter user @real_GGoswami for bringing this FOI to light – you can find the full thread here.)
In March of this year, American journalists Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi testified in U.S. Congress about their discovery of a Censorship Industrial Complex in their investigation of Twitter’s internal files. Shellenberger and Taibi described a web of cosy collusion of Government agencies, private sector think tanks and academic institutions working together with Big Tech to spy on and censor ordinary citizens.
In their reporting, which has become known as the Twitter Files, Shellenberger and Taibbi, along with other notable independent journalists, documented a list of activities that people in free and democratic nations would probably associate with authoritarian regimes in places such as China or Russia. Activities including:
- Elaborate disinformation campaigns instigated by Government agencies and think tanks in order to influence elections (e.g. Hunter Biden laptop coverup, fake Russian bot disinfo used to tie Trump to Russia);
- Censorship of true information that was inconvenient to Government policy (called ‘malinformation’);
- Censorship of true Covid/vaccine related information;
- Twitter’s secret use of blacklists and visibility filters to suppress certain accounts, opinions and even entire topics, and so much more.
Find a complete list of the Twitter File installments here.
Why this matters should be obvious, but in case it’s not, the collusion of Government with Big Tech, industry (e.g. pharma), academia and think tanks to steer public conversation and suppress inconvenient truths veers sharply away from the democratic ideals that our societies were founded on. In a world where the ‘experts’ were always right, this would only be a violation of our freedom of expression and thought. But as we know from the Covid era, the experts get it wrong, a lot, which makes the Censorship Industrial Complex a violation of truth itself.
The extent of the Censorship Industrial Complex in Australia is as yet unknown, but there are enough breadcrumbs to cause alarm.
Senator Antic said Monday:
What I’m troubled by is the interjection of unelected bureaucrats into the realm of freedom of speech and into the realm of publishing, and of Government departments generally.
Senator Antic is hardly alone on this, in Australia or around the world. Senator Antic has requested a full, unredacted copy of the Online Content Incident Arrangement and more detail about the 4,213 social media posts that the Australian Government sought to have taken down.
Rebekah Barnett reports from Western Australia. She holds a BA in Communications. This article first appeared on her Substack page Dystopian Down Under. Subscribe here.
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Is it still not cool to wish everyone good morning here? Good morning anyway, whether it is or isn’t.
Sam Harris is I think the only member of the so-called intellectual dark web who was completely taken in by the covid scam. And he’ll never admit it. I have sceptical friends who are surprised by his failure to grasp what was going on but I’m not. His previous obsession, the dangers of fundamentalist Islam, always seemed completely misguided to me and overlooked the political and historical causes of the phenomenon. So it’s no surprise to find him attacking free speech in the middle of a plandemic. I think he means well but seems to fall quite easily for imperialist propaganda.
Some lyrics for today:
You came on your own
That’s how you’ll leave
With hope in your hands
And air to breathe
Good morning fellow guerrillas.
Here we go…
Great to see you posting CG. Where have you been? Hope you are well.
Be interesting to understand the mind of the person that’s disliked your greeting. Utterly bizarre. But then nothing surprises me anymore.
Thanks very much FL.
It would appear the same two downticking my comments are downticking yours too FL.
Welcome aboard.
I am, but my life is in chaos as I’m in the middle of emigrating. Reading DS wherever I have a few spare minutes but never have time to comment! Still very much on board though!
Glad to hear you are OK.
I will send you a PM later today.
Ooh where are you moving to? You don’t have to answer that, just being nosy.
At Schiphol. Many masked nut jobs but the sane still dominate, thank the gods. Chinese-looking people masked with visors. They should just never travel if they’re that paranoid. But every ethnicity is represented in their collective madness and mass formation, so no discriminating here.
Oh well, onwards and upwards.
Have a good trip Mogs
Vietnam. It’s interesting isn’t it, the way that various countries have adopted their own brand of covid lunacy.. my reading of the situation in Vietnam is that they seem rather keen to put it behind them. I’m apprehensive nonetheless. Hope to do one of those ‘postcards from’ when I’ve settled.
Wherever you settle, I wish you well.
Re the masked zealots in NHS.
I’ve had two outings this week! One to out-patients & the other to the GP surgery for a blood test.
At the hospital they were insisting on masks for patient ‘safety’. I said that I & my friend who’d come to make sure I didn’t get lost were both exempt. She’s never used that exclusion & initially felt bad until I explained the law.
The HCA who did the weighing, bp etc happily removed her mask, is well & truly awake & fighting the system quietly from within. My consultant greeted me with his face bare – apparently he’s only too happy to comply with the request to see faces!
At the GP the HCA there who took the bloods is also awake, again mask free. Odd mask zealot amongst the patients.
She had anaemia after her second covid bioweapon injection, spoke with the GPs at the practice who all assured her that it was absolutely nothing to do with the bioweapon & everything to do with her diet as a veggie. She’s been a veggie for over 30 years with never any issues… She’s now going to report it to the Yellow Card system.
Informed her about the 25mcg of mercury per injection – she’s horrified. Even more horrified about the planned inclusion of covid bioweapon into the MMR jab. She has an 11 month grandchild….
BB …”horrified about the planned inclusion of covid bioweapon into the MMR jab.”
Have you got a link?
(FFS!)
I read this a couple months ago:
https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20220727/Incorporating-a-coronavirus-antigen-into-MMR-vaccine-to-produce-COVID-19-immunity-in-kids.aspx
The U.K. has already included the current C jab into the vaccine schedule. I’m not surprised there will likely be a push towards a combined jab.
re mercury content, I think there are two preparations, one with, one without.
As an aside, just seen on the news Moderna is suing Pfizer for patent infringement. Hehe – dog eat dog.
Technically, Moderna & NIH do own the patent…
So by getting rid of Pfizer it means more profit for Fauci
I don’t but ellie-em does below.
I have to admit that I was an admirer of Harris. I read his books, watched his debates with Jordan Peterson and even used his meditation app daily. When the ‘pandemic’ hit, I was pretty sure it was being over-hyped, but then when I listened to a Harris podcast warning of impending doom, I’ll admit I was rattled. It took another couple of weeks of careful analysis of data to convince me that my original position was the correct one.
I suspect that Harris is now suffering from severe cognitive dissonance. His whole demeanour in that interview was really out of character – he is normally very calm and collected. I suspect that deep down inside he realises he was completely wrong about Covid but just can’t admit it to himself or anyone else. I suspect that is badly affecting his judgement.
He does also have a difficult relationship to spirituality. His meditation and psychedelic experiences have taken him to a place where he seems to acknowledge that there is something beyond the material, but then he can’t quite make that jump, so he sits awkwardly on the fence. He had conversations with highly respected spiritual teachers and positions himself as being on the same page, but he isn’t. He has an absolutist position on free will but never really seems to consider the deterministic implications of that view. He is unquestionably a very intelligent man, but in my view his mind lacks the flexibility of truly great thinkers.
This is a great interpretation which I have just forwarded to one of my closest friends who is baffled by Harris’ inability to comprehend the global fraud that has just taken place.
His turning on Brett Weinstein is unforgivable, not just because he has betrayed a friend, but because he knows how sharp Weinstein is and still dismisses him. That shows him as a man who is wedded to an ideology to the exclusion of all reason. Mattais Desmet does make the point that it is often the most intelligent people who are most susceptible to mass formation and I suppose this is a case in point.
‘his mind lacks the flexibility of truly great thinkers.’ or, like so many of the covid / climate fanatics, lack of an innate bulls#*t detector.
I’m glad my mum and dad gifted me with one…
CG – pm sent at 13:48. I hope.
I’m shadow-banned by the DT for pointing out perfectly reasonable points about Covid, ‘vaccines’ and Ukraine. That ban is like a badge of honour – a badge that’s becoming impossible not to notice as the cowards and collaborators at the spineless DT start to panic like rats on a sinking ship. I’ve said this before, but it was always time that would see the wheels coming off this debacle, as the filth that we still call MSM start to throw others under the bus in the hope of self preservation Let the rats drown in their own stinking excrement.
I don’t read the DT, but occasionally it’s headlines get presented elsewhere, such as on Mark Steyn’s show on GBN. It does appear that the bus is slowly grinding to a halt for the time being.
Hear. Hear.
Oh god, I get so frustrated by the DT, they remove so many of my comments, simply because they mention the vaccine in a disparaging way. It puzzles me because I read other comments that are similar to mine. Why aren’t they censored? I have taken to, if they remove a comment, writing another comment lambasting their ridiculous deletions, telling them we have freedom of expression in this country and what else would I expect because they are in Bill Gates’s pocket. Useless I know, but makes me feel better.
Peter McCullough uses #jections to get around the AI bots, working so far & uses a yellow highlighter to score out any censored words from headlines/titles of papers which he posts on Twitter. So far, so good for him.
worth a look at how he phrases things to administer the red pills without censoring the message.
Just for the record, Fraserburgh Nelson argued in favour of a further, 4th lockdown against Kate Andrews in a Spectator podcast. In his own way he’s as culpable & was as gullible as any one.
Fraser. Bloody spell checkers!
I think it’s ‘predictive text’ Nick.
Those salient points were made by myself & a few other BTL commenters in the face of a tsunami of opposition. Very rarely does it descend to abuse generally a very civilised place to be.
There are a few indications that more of the sheeple are awakening. One poster called Pretty Polly has been banging on about Soros & his bribes to ensure compliance with diktats for years, all backed up with evidence, finally a few more folk are beginning to see that the exhortation of follow the money was spot on.
There’s now the minor issue of them having a Ukrainian refugee intern who is determined to keep pushing everything pro Zelensky…
Fraser is married to a Swede. Sweden has for many very been a very socialist country leading the way in the promotion & acceptance of the alphabet people & has some weird ideas about men being Men.
I know someone who is also married to a Swede & to ensure that his sons grew up as Men returned to his native Wales. BTW I trust this individual 100% – he knew David Kelly personally & resigned his medical licence so that he could speak out. A man of real integrity & his address book contains the names & numbers of so many Heroes & Heroines of the current times. When someone asks if anyone has contact with So&So, the answer usually is to ask him to make contact!
All part of starving & freezing the useless eaters to death….
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-23/azoty-of-poland-halts-fertilizer-production-on-record-gas-prices
Pandemic Logic
Choices have consequences.
People who chose not to get vaccinated and lost their jobs and livelihoods have to face the consequences.
Also,
Nobody chose to lockdown the world. There was no choice, it just had to be done and because there was no choice, there are also no consequences.
Pandemic Logic
Pre-pandemic guidance specifically recommended against lockdowns because of known/predictable negative consequences.
After trying it out all of those consequences turned out to be due to reasons other than putting the world on hold.
This guy is on the money! The power of music to prime & control the masses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSpLPSbXJJE
Some practical advice on how to keep warm & have some light when the inevitable power cuts happen this winter. Fairly cheap to do & important to prep & share with the elderly who will need this support.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnNHM4OLkvE&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpiVejMGsTI
Nice to see a few worms turning. I know a few people who now admit they have been had and are now full on sceptics. But no-one has apologised to me for calling me a conspiracy theorist or comparing me to Hitler, and no-one has told me “you were right”
It is a given in our family that “I am always right” so I no longer expect to receive this compliment as often as is my right.
An overview right from the start of the supposed “pandemic” to date by John Stone who has always been a Truth Warrior & it certainly challenges Sunak’s assertions that he is one of the good guys in government…
https://www.ageofautism.com/2022/08/revised-version-the-british-government-the-world-health-organization-and-the-global-coup-of-2020.html
This made me smile
[Forwarded from Lawyers of Light]
If the Government still did Public Service Announcements
As you know we, your Government, care very much about you and the forthcoming energy crisis. With that in mind we have spent £30 million pounds of your money in speaking to The Experts©️.
We asked them to come up with ways for you to navigate the coming humanitarian crisis, in order to help you heat your home this winter.
After The Experts©️ spent three long weeks exploring options in line with The Science™️ the results are in. Remember, these are some of our best and brightest and we want to thank them for their service to the issue.
Recommendations.
1. Do not throw away any clothes or furniture. Simply burn them if you get cold. A great way to also declutter
2. Move 15 members of your family into the cupboard under the stairs to live. Humans generate an enormous amount of heat so you will warm up instantly
3. Simply don’t eat for two weeks and you can put the heating on for a day. A great aid to weight loss too
4. Consider clubbing with your neighbours to all sell your houses and move into a one bedroom flat. A great way to share costs and all the cash from the house sales can be burned to generate heat. You don’t need cash as we have CBDCs coming.
5. Your employers office is bound to be warm. Simply offer to work 16 hours instead of 8, for no extra fee, and you will be toasty hot
6. Running up and down stairs is a great way to keep warm, and its free. However, this can cause a heart attack, along with braking too hard, cold showers and worrying about energy costs, so do take care
Thank you for listening to your Government. And remember, with us, you are only ever one step away from a living hell
Brilliant.
Thanks once again BB. And now to share.
I just knew I could rely on you
It has been whizzed I assure you.
We could all do with some help to release trauma we have had inflicted on us.
Doug an incredible survivor of SRA and MK ultra joins me to discuss some powerful simple techniques to release trauma from the body, mind and emotions.
We cover some common programming for survivors of all types childhood trauma, how to observe and identify these forms of mind control and how to transmute them.
We rise by facing our fears.
This act of self courage enables the powerful release of trauma, transmutation of programming and empowers each of us to create the solutions we are here to at this time.
May we all remember and ignite the hero we came to BE at this time
https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/1f496.svghttps://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/1f4ab.svg
Watch the interview here https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/25b6.svg https://youtu.be/6F6WSH6buRU
https://t.me/gabbichoong
A freedom tirade in 5 minutes for all the conspiracy theorists to share where they can without being censored.
https://odysee.com/@FreedomTirade:f/YOU%27RE-NOT-ALONE:3?r=
A quote from Paul Homewood in today’s TCW, reviewing a book by David Sedgewick on the BBC:
“Formed in 1922 by the British establishment, the BBC has always been a reliable ally of ultra-wealthy and powerful interests. Indeed, the broadcaster occupies a pivotal position within an international corporate-political alliance which promotes only those narratives which consolidate the “global order”.
‘Using multiple examples of BBC reporting, the author argues that the tax-payer funded broadcaster is a proxy which acts on behalf of a tiny, but very powerful clique – a role which compels it to pump out disinformation on an industrial scale, misleading all those who consume its content.’”
Impossible to disagree with this comment.
Here is the link to Paul’s always excellent Friday article giving the eco loons a good fisking:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-climate-scaremongers-the-bbcs-mangrove-dishonesty/
https://news.upday.com/uk/moderna-sues-pfizer-and-biontech-over-patents-behind-covid-19-vaccine/?utm_source=upday&utm_medium=referral
Eh up. Trouble at t’ Mill.
Just received my Jerm Warfare email. Some interesting stuff to watch… If you’re not washing your hair, propping up the bar (can do this in my favourite local!!) on a Friday evening.
Alex Jones has been right about a lot of things, and one of those things is Sandy Hook, argues James Fetzer.
And before the proverbial knee jerks, consider the following.
Why do you believe what you believe?
Is it because you saw it on CNN? Is it because a friend told you? Did you read it on the internet? Did you witness, with your own eyes, what you believe to be true?
For example, why do you believe that an aircraft flew into the Pentagon?
Look at the four consecutive frames from the only operational security camera on the day, and notice that there is no aircraft in the first two frames. (The timestamps are incorrect, but the four consecutive photos are correct, as per official Pentagon documents.)
The Pentagon refuses to release most of the photos and videos, which would put this story to bed, but amateur footage shows what appears to be a missile striking the building, and there being no aircraft wreckage anywhere. Yes, there was an engine “found” on the lawn a bit later, but it wasn’t from the “aircraft” that flew into the Pentagon.
My point is that the last couple of years of a fake pandemic have taught me to test what I think I know. And if the falsification fails, then that’s great! But blindly believing is tantamount to ignorance. Outsourcing critical thinking is a bad idea.
Back to Sandy Hook
James is a researcher who was previously on my podcast in which he discussed the JFK assassination coverup. (Again, why do you believe the official story?)
I enjoy a good conspiracy as much as the next theorist, and have welcomed some pretty eye-opening conversations in recent months, from Marilyn Monroe to 9/11 to the Titanic, but this one about Sandy Hook is absolutely next level.
Was Alex Jones right?
James reckons that Alex was right all along, despite all the legal and political backgammon currently being played.
As James notes in our conversation, the “slain first grader” doesn’t exist. Or, rather, he does exist, but not in the way the mainstream narrative has been constructed.
What actually happened?
I don’t know.
But, once again, trusting the legitimacy of official stories is not a good strategy in piecing together puzzles. And being labelled a “conspiracy theorist” is empty and just an attempt to discredit, silence critical thinking, and perpetuate established views. Ignore such labels.
And when censorship becomes the dominating force, like in the case with this particular event, alarm bells should ring. After all, why would “crazy conspiracy theories” need to be censored if they’re clearly crap? And why would people need to be protected and sheltered from them?
The following documentary (which, obviously, is not on YouTube) is long but superb.
Our conversation
James showed some photos in this podcast, so watching it might be preferable to listening to it. He covers a lot of ground, including questions around
One needs a strong drink for this one.
Some things never change….
[Forwarded from Robin Monotti + Dr Mike Yeadon + Cory Morningstar]
“Billionaires Try to Shrink World’s Population, Report Says (2009)
“The New York meeting of billionaires Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller, Eli Broad, George Soros, Ted Turner, Oprah, Michael Bloomberg and others was described by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as an informal gathering aimed at encouraging philanthropy.
“Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority,” the article said, adding that “this could result in a challenge to some Third World politicians who believe contraception and female education weaken traditional values.”
Such a stand wouldn’t be surprising. Messrs. Gates, Buffett and Turner have been quietly worrying about Malthusian population problems for years. Mr. Gates in February outlined a plan to try to cap the world’s population at 8.3 billion people, rather than the projected 9.3 billion at which the population is expected to peak..
Some are raising the spectre of eugenics.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WHB-1322
[Forwarded from Anna de Buisseret (UK Lawyer)]
Why do some people find it hard to believe that those in positions of power might WANT to harm us all?
“..once we snap out of that fond fantasy of their benevolence, and face the fact that, yes, they are that evil, and (worse yet) that all the institutions we’ve been taught to trust from childhood on—the government at nearly every level, the medical establishment, “higher education” and (above all) “our free press”—have been corrupted by that evil, and are now part of it:
once We the People, or enough of us, stop thinking that that can’t be true, then everything will change.”
https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/theyre-free-to-keep-on-killing-us
This is interesting…. We all know that Sunak is not to be trusted, he could & should have spoken up in March 2020 instead of keeping this information to himself for personal political gain.
SAGE: Grounds for criminal investigation into misconduct in public office
“Sunak reveals that Sage recommendations were implemented by No 10 without consultation with Cabinet members. This meant, writes Nelson, that whoever wrote the minutes for the Sage meetings – condensing its discussions into guidance for government – would set the policy of the nation.
But in the early days, at least, Sunak knew that the minutes of Sage meetings were being edited to silence dissenting voices, because unknown to the Sage members one of his staff was listening in to their conference calls.
‘His mole, he says, would tell him: ‘“Well, actually, it turns out that lots of people disagreed with that conclusion”, or “Here are the reasons that they were not sure about it”.’
Nelson writes: ‘For a year, UK government policy – and the fate of millions – was being decided by half-explained graphs cooked up by outside academics. “This is the problem,” [Sunak] says. “If you empower all these independent people, you’re screwed”.’
It surely goes further than that. As lawyer Francis Hoar has tweeted, if the minutes of Sage were false, and Sunak knew they were false, there are grounds for criminal investigation into misconduct in public office.”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/sunaks-belated-covid-confession-shows/
If you’re in the area, may be worth a day out this weekend. There’s real ale!
Free to view link. The Defenders of Truth, Freedom & Human Rights were to be found here at Lock Down Sceptic. Bravo!
The Truth will always out.
https://www.vtlnews.com/bravo-to-the-lockdown-sceptics-who-were-smeared-and-dismissed-for-daring-to-defend-freedom/
I’d not heard of crowd funding for weapons for Ukraine before… Interesting short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQmBAH-DtA
A little more law breaking by Pfizer…
https://hedleyrees.substack.com/p/pfizer-refused-to-serialize-its-sars