The government seems to be grabbing power in any way it can from the citizens of their country.

The Australian parliament passed a bill that will give full control of citizens’ social media accounts and place that power in the hands of the government. Nothing will be sacred on social media. The Australian government will be effectively spying on its own citizens.

The government can now access email accounts without consent. The government can now add and delete information they deem to need attention. The power to edit, remove, add, delete information, without citizen consent, is the feeling of a true authoritarian government making a strong move.

The bill allows the government to perform three types of data disruption. AU authorities will have unprecedented access to all accounts. Access is one thing and that is bad enough, but now the government can literally invade citizens’ privacy with zero recourse.

The Guardian reported,

“It is alarming that, instead of accepting the committee’s recommendations and allowing time for scrutiny of subsequent amendments, the Morrison government rushed these laws through parliament in less than 24 hours,” Pender said.

“While the safeguards for journalists and whistleblowers are welcome, they highlight the lack of wider entrenched safeguards for press freedom and free speech in Australia.”

The ability for federal agents to delete, copy, and modify citizens’ online accounts is now within the “legal” realm.

The government can impersonate its citizens, while using online accounts, to achieve tasks they deem worthy. This is a true infringement upon every AU citizen and it feels an awful lot like the movie 1984 coming to real life.