Well, here’s a new one in the free speech wars: a government-funded, left-wing media behemoth complaining that its own articles are ‘malicious malinformation’.
At issue is the Facebook page for conservative lobby group Advance Australia. Founded as an explicit opposite to pro-Green spruikers GetUp, Advance is naturally targeting the Greens heavily in its content. Mostly by reminding Australians of just what the Greens are, as shown by what they do. As reported by the ABC.
And the ABC – whose taxpayer-funded staff vote Green nearly four times the Australian average – are having a right old tanty.
For the past two months, Advance Australia’s “Election News” Facebook page has published hundreds of links to older news articles, chronicling allegations of sexual assault, bullying and sexism within the Greens party.
The links are being posted as ads on Facebook, meaning they only appear on the news feeds of Advance’s target audiences.
So what? Is the ABC suddenly denying that its own reporting is true? If the Greens are flush with toxic people, don’t Australian voters deserve every opportunity to know about it?
Advance said it’s pushing the old news articles – some from as far back as 2017 – to “shine a light” on a “toxic culture” within the political party.
So, what’s the problem?
But Queensland University of Technology digital communications expert Professor Daniel Angus said the practice is a textbook example of a “malinformation campaign”, where true information is removed from its appropriate context and then spread with the intent to harm reputations.
He pointed out that many people who see a link on social media don’t click through to read the full article, but see the headline and move on.
“The [malinformation] strategy capitalises on how audiences may only read headlines and lead paragraphs, but fail to check publication dates and appreciate that these issues may have long been resolved,” he said.
Have they, though?
Only in the last two weeks, more reports have come to light of a toxic, bullying culture within the Greens. In recent months, Greens MPs have been forced to resign over sexual misconduct allegations, have promoted material featuring Hamas logos and pushed motions in parliament targeting Jewish groups.
So, excuse us if it sounds like there’s an awful lot of muck swilling around in the Greens.
Muck the ABC apparently doesn’t want anyone raking over.
A company spokesperson told the ABC that Meta’s investigators were “unable to locate any violating content” in the posts […]
Advance said their campaign was an attempt to bring to light accusations that have been levelled against Greens representatives in the past.
“The truth is never misleading, though we accept it is hard for the Greens to hear,” they said.
The truth will set you free. The ABC wants you to remain a prisoner.
Whatever you do, don’t read their own reports on what the Greens are really like.
