AAP FACTCHECK – Proposed laws would give Queensland authorities the power to make people delete any social media posts they don’t like, a gun advocacy group claims.
This is false. The proposed laws would give only Queensland police the power to order social media platforms to remove content depicting specific criminal acts, either glorifying those acts or seeking to boost perpetrators’ reputations.
Shooters Union Australia claimed on Facebook the bill “shows some truly frightening things” including “forcing people to take down social media posts the authorities don’t like.”
The post has been shared with the comment “Wake up now Qldrs!” while another post warns: “we are losing our rights and our access.”
“You put up a post that the government doesn’t like, they can order you to take that post down,” Shooters Union president Graham Park claims in a video (1 minute, 3.0 seconds) on the group’s website.
The union’s formal submission on the bill warns it will give police powers to order the removal of online posts and issue penalties for non-compliance.
“This could lead to arbitrary censorship and infringe on freedom of expression,” the submission says.
There are several parts of the bill that relate to social media.
Chapter 21A explains that police can request social media platforms to remove posts depicting “unlawful conduct” relating to several offences, including those involving driving or operating a vehicle, violence or the threat of violence, taking, damaging, destroying, removing, using, interfering with or entering property or offences involving a weapon.
Police must also suspect the content was posted with the aim of “glorifying the unlawful conduct” or “increasing the person’s reputation, or another person’s reputation, because of their involvement in the unlawful conduct”.
The content must also have been accessed by a person in Queensland. The criminal conduct must have occurred in the state, or have been posted by someone in Queensland or a resident.
Under Section 26B of the bill, individuals who publish such material could face up to two years in jail.
It also proposes making it a crime for an offender to post content advertising their involvement in offences, including dangerous driving, burglary, assault and arming oneself to cause fear.
University of Queensland Professor Katharine Gelber says claiming the bill will empower police to make people delete their own posts is “false.”
“The proposed bill does not provide authorities with the power to take down social media posts ‘the authorities don’t like’,” she told AAP FactCheck.
“We could have a separate discussion about the appropriateness of prohibiting social media posts that glorify or advertise the commission of the listed criminal offences, but that would be a separate discussion.”
Queensland University of Technology PhD candidate and online media law expert Lucinda Nelson agrees, adding that the bill would not give police powers to issue takedown orders to users.
“The Bill would give authorised officers the power to issue removal notices to the provider of an online service (e.g. a social media platform), not to individual people,” she told AAP FactCheck in an email.
The Verdict
The claim that proposed laws will allow Queensland authorities to order social media users to remove any content it does not like is false.
Legal experts told AAP FactCheck the bill would only allow police to issue social media platforms, not individuals, with orders to take down content depicting criminal acts for specific purposes.
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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