Blockade Australia climate activist can't use encrypted apps, must let police access phone
Blockade Australia climate activist can't use encrypted apps, must let police access phone
One phone, no encrypted apps, and sharing passwords with police: These are some of the technology-focused bail conditions faced by Blockade Australia climate protesters.
"Mr Rolles was arrested in late June, when he was pulled off the street in Sydney for allegedly blocking roads and obstructing traffic."
Since late June, Greg Rolles must produce on demand his computer and mobile phone for police inspection, and tell them his passwords.
He is not allowed to use any encrypted messaging apps, like Signal or WhatsApp. He can only have one mobile phone. [...]
These are the strict technology-related bail conditions imposed on some Blockade Australia climate protesters — a development legal experts have criticised as "unusual" and "extreme". [...]
Defence lawyer Mark Davis, who is representing some of the Blockade Australia activists, said the vagueness of the prohibition was concerning.
"It used to name the things you couldn't have, and then they made it all encrypted communication," he said.
"It could be you're on your PlayStation."
He also takes issue with the non-association rules, and the lack of specificity about what an "association" might be. Mr Davis said one of his clients had been pulled in by police after they reacted with a "thumbs up" emoji to Facebook comments [...]
All this because they didnt get a permission slip signed for a protest and blocking a road. These people arent violent felons, terrorists are pedophiles. The usual targets for this kind of gross overreach, which has at least some kind of moral panic thrown behind it, are passed up in favour of using this on people who blocked a road. Absolutely disgusting.
It's because the Australian government is sliding into fossil fascism. They watched a quarter of their island burn and said "not enough".
Facism doesnt need a prefix in my experience. Nor does this actually seem like facism and is just run of the mill authoratarianism.
Watafak, that's not "extreme" that's acting as if he was a terrorist in possesion of chemical weapons. This is surrealist. Fuck them all, fuck neoliberalism and fuck those fascists.
Defiance is the only option when it comes to these authoritarian rulings. I hope Greg and the others know this.
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Lol, no. That's a very USA and guns culture centred view. Australia has weapons. We just don't allow everyone to have them willy nilly. You need a licence and to properly store them. We see it as sensible and lament the deaths of all the USA children who die for so called freedom. It's much more free here.
However this is a worrying sign of overreach. Luckily the USA has no such laws, like the patriot Act or the current proposal to register your address against online accounts. You know, to protect the children you're all so fond of killing.
Y'all are certainly further down the slope than some countries. But also not as far as others. Theres also different tactics in different countries. Here (Canada) the playbook is very similar to AUS. In the states it looks different. But everythings going down the same slope. Id suggest getting a few more of those weapons.
I assume its more of a cultural thing than a practical matter. Sure, AUS has far more restrictive gun rights than the US, but its much more a matter that the average civi is either ignorant or apathetic to the slide into totalitarianism that said country has been in for the better part of a decade. Hell, replace AUS with most western countries and the sentence still works.