Digital Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide comment to the committee on the nature and drivers of radicalisation in Australia.

We note that the terms of reference are expansive. Our submission does not address all of the terms as we do not carry expertise in radicalisation and extremism. However, we do have expertise in digital platform regulation and the value of encryption, so have focused our submission on these areas.

Encryption is a vital tool for the protection of everyday citizens’ data, as well as our security and safety. It is not acceptable for the Australian government, regardless of its position on the laws of mathematics, to attempt to weaken Australians’ right to use strong encryption to protect ourselves and our data. This position is shared by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.

Similarly, Australians depend on internet platforms for large amounts of their activity - socialising, shopping, healthcare et al. We depend on these platforms to follow good engineering practices, including end-to-end encryption, to keep our personal data secure. We cannot afford to weaken the ability of platforms to implement strong encryption for their users.

We think it is critically important that a human rights approach is used when combating extremism, which means recognising the rights of individuals to private communications, and to associate freely.