I nominate the Helen Clark Foundation as our Free speech denier of the week as it is actively working towards a future for New Zealand that includes a State-appointed “independent” regulator who will have immense power over the free speech of citizens and private companies online.
They call their proposal a “regulatory body” but in reality what they are proposing is a body that Censors and controls the internet with the ability to order ISP providers to cut off their customer’s websites. It is terrifying stuff.
The proposed powers that this regulator would have to punish individuals and private companies include:
1. Financial penalties,
2. Liability on executives
3. Business disruptionquote.
[…] so that’s things like internet service providers being ordered to take sites down and that’s a massive stick – particularly the latter one – and it’s already happened in New Zealand. ISPs took sites offline during the Christchurch attack – but with no public input – and some did and some didn’t, so it was uneven.end quote.
Kathy Errington (Executive Director of the Helen Clark Foundation)
If I was an ISP provider I would fight tooth and nail against this proposal. Imagine how this would affect the trust between customers and their provider if customers knew that at any time the provider could be ordered by the State censor to shut down their website.
https://www.thebfd.co.nz/2019/05/helen-clark-foundation-recommendations-to-monitor-penalise-posters-of-harmful-content/
