Well, well, well.
What do we have here? The Confidential briefing paper that shows the true scale of the Department of Internal Affairs new ‘Ministry of Truth’…
…remember, woke defenders of this new ‘Ministry of Truth’ declared this was only a regulatory framework to counter social media networks to ensure consumer safety.
TDB argued it was far larger than that and was an outrageous over reach of State power to regulate free speech.
Turns out we were right.
This is well beyond changing the hate speech laws, this is an entire Bureaucratic Infrastructure upgrade that would allow the aggrieved to complain to the Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Truth would demand the Network’s ‘Safety’ plan and would ‘audit’ the ‘safety’ plan to see if you as the Network owner are protecting the consumer safety of vulnerable people (as defined by the Ministry of Truth).
One of the fears of the change in Hate Speech Laws was that the woke would weaponise the process and demand investigations for every twitter fight since 2016, well this suggestion by the DIA codifies a means for which anyone can launch their latest lynch mobs from.
This is now focused on mis/disinformation (and we know how toxic woke warriors are inside those organisations), unwanted digital communication??? (is that the Spinoff?), racism and hate speech.
Notice how that was all hidden from the public about the true nature of what the DIA have privately built here?
Under this new regime, the Ministry of Truth compels a regulation that requires ‘safety’ plans for ‘vulnerable’ people (as defined by the Ministry of Truth).
If a person complains about your content, you are required to show the Ministry your ‘Safety’ plan and if that ‘Safety’ plan is not good enough to deal with the lived experience of the vulnerable people who you have offended, you are in trouble.
It seems the vulnerable people will determine that.
If my safety plan is not robust enough, I don’t have one or if it doesn’t end up pacifying the vulnerable person, I get fined.
This is sold as a means to protect vulnerable people, it will immediately become a weaponised process that will inspire a billion new fights.
What we should be looking at, rather than a Ministry of Truth, is actual fourth estate journalism that consumers can trust, not a weaponised complaints procedure that will immediately become exploited by partisan activists masquerading as consumer safety.
What we need is a total rethink on public money spent on journalism. Currently it is handed out via a deeply invested NZ on Air who give their mates money to produce angry feminist mommy blogger podcasts no on watches.
The problem with the current model is that it is NZ on Air mates funding other NZ on Air mates to form an echo bunker of elite opinion that never has to dirty itself with reality.
All that is being generated by the current funding model is The Spin-off sharing their content with RNZ/Stuff/TVNZ etc etc etc. An endless social engineering campaign that promotes diversity over white cis male facts.
What we need is NZ on Air ‘Read between the Flags’ Kiwi journalism
In a world of disinformation, we need journalism we can trust. We all get the ‘swim between the flag’ model of surf life saving, NZ on Air should be given extra funding for ‘Read between the flags’ Kiwi Journalism. This money is to ensure plurality of voice for independent media, Māori media, specific communities, news blogs and mainstream news media who become eligible if they agree to a set of Journalistic Principles.
These Journalistic Principles are fact checking stories, attempting to get comment and providing right of replies, protecting sources and attempts to hear the other side of the story.
If you do agree and sign up and can show a body of work that proves your journalism, you are entitled to funding and must have a Kiwi Journalism flag on your site to show you are obliged to follow the Journalistic Principles Code of conduct.
You would have an awareness campaign to urge NZers to ‘read between the flags’ for trusted information.
You can’t control the narrative by simply censoring it the way the Disinformation Project wants, and a ‘read between the flags’ campaign alongside a journalism fund would ensure Kiwis knew that whatever they were reading is at least base line journalistic standards rather than so much of the bullshit opinion masquerading as journalism.
We need to adapt our funding model if we want to have a media that can change to the realities of disinformation and misinformation while championing the importance of the values of journalism.
All NZ on Air funded journalism is now is an extension of elite opinion echo bunkers that only reinforces the privilege rather than challenges it.
What we are instead getting is an Orwellian Wellington Woke Bureaucratic Panzer that will crush anyone who the partisan activists turn it against.
We don’t need a Ministry of truth, we need better funded Fourth Estate Journalism funded by the State with a clear set of journalistic standards and a public campaign warning Kiwis to ‘read within the flags’.
We need smarter ideas, not a Ministry of Truth.
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