Sam is a dedicated digital rights activist, privacy advocate and writer who regularly contributes to public debate on technology, power and human rights. She is currently undertaking a PhD at Monash University, researching the impact of emerging technologies on housing justice in Australia.
In July, the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) wrapped up a public consultation on the Digital Identity Legislation Position Paper. Needless to say, we are concerned about the way that an eID would interact with our digital rights (especially since the government has a long history of trying to tie identity to internet access) so we made a submission!
Ironside and the International Productions Orders (IPO) Bill
Operation Ironside, where an encrypted communications application was used to trick and track criminals, gave us a media storm of discussions around surveillance. The Prime Minister used the opportunity to add some pressure on Parliament to pass three new pieces of legislation that would broaden Australia’s surveillance mandate even further. The first up was the International Productions Order Bill and it made it through the Australian Senate in a whopping 24 minutes.
What is art? What is pornography? A contested distinction that was once made by adult stores, galleries, and the classification board, now falls to digital platforms and their automated content moderation algorithms.Censorship debates date back centuries, and our public discussions, legislation, and tech policies are still riddled with moralistic ideology about what is ‘good’, what is ‘bad’ and what the general public should be allowed to see.
Greetings from… inside our homes. With the majority of our team back in lockdown in Victoria, we have been keeping an eye on coronavirus updates. If you registered to attend the Coded Bias movie screening, you should have received a refund. If you wanted to come but missed a spot—good news! We will be rescheduling the event once life returns to something that resembles ‘normal’.
All this talk of protecting women online reminds me of a quote from renowned feminist and author Mona Eltahawy: “I don’t want to be protected. I want patriarchy to stop protecting men who are violent towards women.” I doubt she would approve of the measures in the new Online Safety Bill.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holidays, it’s RightsCon season!
RightsCon is the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, hosted by our friends at Access Now. It will take place 7-11 June and it will, once again, be entirely virtual.