The Government plans to introduce new legislation creating a new “Regulator” of online content.

In a page right out of George Orwell’s 1984, the Government’s “Ministry Of Truth” will oversee the creation of various codes dictating what content online platforms can and can’t share online.

This new Regulator will be empowered to make up its own rules to protect Kiwis from vaguely defined “unsafe” or “harmful” content that we apparently all need protecting from. The Regulator will approve codes of practice for platforms to comply with, requiring platforms to identify, moderate and take down “non-compliant” content.

The Government has set out its proposals in a document it refers to euphemistically as the “Safer Online Services and Media Platforms Discussion Document”. We prefer to refer to them by what they really are: online censorship laws.

The document suggests draft legislation based on the proposals and public feedback will be available by 2024.

Feedback is important and can be provided up to the deadline of midnight on Monday 31 July 2023.

To make it quick and easy to provide your feedback please visit www.defendfreespeech.co.nz.