Australia’s New Police Powers Allow Them To Control Social Media Accounts, Delete Data

IFL Science ^ | 9/2/2021 | staff

[simpson96]

The Australian government has rushed a bill through parliament in just 24 hours, allowing police to hack the devices of anyone involved in an ongoing investigation. Through this new law, police will be able to modify or delete data, take control over social media accounts, and collect network activity to the extent they feel necessary to further their inquiries. All this can be done by creating one of three warrants, which critics have claimed are far too easy to gain.

They believe the new police powers will grant them the ability to fight back against online crime, while Senator Lidia Thorpe calls the bill a "cyber-enabled abuse of power".

“The bill does not identify or explain why these powers are necessary and our allies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand do not grant law enforcement these rights.” Thorpe wrote in a blog post(snip)

Titled ‘Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2021’ (which is already a rather ominous title), the legislation grants police the power to gain three new warrants:

1.Data disruption warrants: this enables police to modify or entirely delete a suspect’s data;

2.Network activity warrants: police can gain information stored in computers of a suspect, alongside any suspected criminal networks and users linked to the individual;

3.Account takeover warrants: the police may take control of a suspect’s social media and online accounts.

To obtain these warrants, it is not necessary for police to seek a judge’s authority. Instead, the police simply have to request them from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a review body within the government that independently reviews decisions made by officials but only has jurisdiction when the law specifically states so. This will make it much easier to gain warrants for data collection or modification without justification to a judge.

[hardspunned]

So? The same thing goes on here. Look at how they control Trump’s social media accounts. He becomes a non entity. Other than here, just like me and possibly you.

[ASOC]

Old Joe Stalin is laughing from his spot in hell...