Govco Australia Pty Ltd raises terror alert to "probable"

Fluffy said:
Just saw this on the nightly news. I like how they’ve prepared everyone’s minds with their recent knife attacks.

Too bad loads of people bowed down and handed in their guns after Port Arthur false flag massacre.

Sitting ducks!
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They're not after the Manchurian candidates wielding knives like retards, they are after those that see through the bullshit and smokeshow.

Oh and don't think there aren't any guns, the buybacks barely scratched the surface.
 
I think this was to be expected too. My thinking is that with the events happening in the UK, there might be a really big push for the digital ID path and I have seen quite a bit of advertising for this recently. They would need some sort of a catalyst to truly make it stick. Some sort of reason for mandatory uptake. And they are hammering this social media/dis info/ misinfo being the devil. No doubt they are front running it here in Australia.
 
chieftain said:
They're not after the Manchurian candidates wielding knives like retards, they are after those that see through the bullshit and smokeshow.

Oh and don't think there aren't any guns, the buybacks barely scratched the surface.
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Well I didn’t know that, I was a kid when all that went down in tassie and just saw my immediate friends and family do what they were told like they always have.
My dad gave up his weapons because he was more worried that I was gonna lose the plot and shoot some people because I was totally obsessed with the whole port Arthur thing, at the time I didn’t realise what i was seeing, but I knew somehow that the shooter wasn’t who they said it was and I felt nothing but compassion for that poor dude locked up for life in a cell by himself.
 
placematt said:
I think this was to be expected too. My thinking is that with the events happening in the UK, there might be a really big push for the digital ID path and I have seen quite a bit of advertising for this recently. They would need some sort of a catalyst to truly make it stick. Some sort of reason for mandatory uptake. And they are hammering this social media/dis info/ misinfo being the devil. No doubt they are front running it here in Australia.
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Think about the COVIDSafe app and how much arse it sucked, it made Nickelback look good. If these cretins do decide to go down the digital path, raise the level of suck to the nth power for the same people that created that app would be put in charge of making the ID's happen.

Fluffy said:
Well I didn’t know that, I was a kid when all that went down in tassie and just saw my immediate friends and family do what they were told like they always have.
My dad gave up his weapons because he was more worried that I was gonna lose the plot and shoot some people because I was totally obsessed with the whole port Arthur thing, at the time I didn’t realise what i was seeing, but I knew somehow that the shooter wasn’t who they said it was and I felt nothing but compassion for that poor dude locked up for life in a cell by himself.
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Unlike the US, most that still have firearms don't go advertising it.
 
Here's the ABC piece where a bit more detail is given by ASIO Director General:

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess says Australia's terror-level threat has been raised to "probable" due to a rising mix of ideologies where people think "violence is permissible".

Mr Burgess had earlier on Monday joined Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in making the announcement, where he said eight incidents had been disrupted in the past four months.

The raising of the threat level does not mean ASIO has intelligence about plans of an imminent attack.

Speaking to 7.30, Mr Burgess said not one of the eight incidents caused the raising of the threat level, but rather it was concerns about the number of motivations involved, and that those involved were not known to authorities.

"One incident or a couple of incidents are not a reason to raise the threat level, but they are an indication of what we're seeing in society across those eight incidents," Mr Burgess said.

"Five of them involved minors or youth. The oldest was 21. The youngest was 14.

"Across the eight there's an equal mix of religiously motivated, nationalist and racist violent extremism."

Mr Albanese earlier said the raised level had been driven by increases in youth radicalisation, online radicalisation and the rise of "new mixed ideologies".

Mr Burgess said mixed ideologies lacked logic but were often based on violence.

Asked if the eight incidents he referred to were mostly religiously motivated, Mr Burgess said the total number was less than half.

He said he was more concerned by people becoming attracted to violent elements of ideologies that did not make sense.

"[In] one particular incident, we have an individual that's latched onto ANTIFA, so extreme left wing, but actually in the manifesto, there's neo-Nazis … that defies logic," he said.

"I'd suggest they're not really hooked on either of those ideologies. They're hooked on the violence elements of that."
Mr Burgess then added that those incidents — which all came after the Wakeley stabbing, where the perpetrator was charged with a terror offence — involved people who were unknown to police and been prepared to act quickly.

"This is the new thing, people will go to violence with little or no warning, and they [have] little or no planning in some of these that I've talked about," he said.

Young Australians are vulnerable​

Mr Burgess said young Australians in particular were being targeted, especially online.

"The youth are particularly vulnerable," he said.

"The internet is a great thing but it also allows individuals to catch on to something and get there in a matter of days, not months or years, and that's particularly concerning now."

Mr Burgess said the trend started during the pandemic, when people were locked down, but it had continued since and a stretched ASIO had tried to combat it.

"You can fall down a rabbit hole of hate quickly," he said.

"COVID is no longer with us, but it's a concern how social media can grab people quickly. The internet can grab people quickly and hurt young brains which are not fully formed."

'Terrorgram and accelerationists'​

Asked what other ideologies were in the mix, Mr Burgess said neo-Nazism remained a prominent area but even though it had dropped off he was concerned with "accelerationists".

He defined that group as those with a far-right ideology who "believe in white supremacy and don't like the way the world is run today, and want its downfall".

He said within that group there were some young leaders who were using apps such as Telegram and a channel called "Terrorgram" to communicate with each other and inform others how to execute attacks.

Asked how much the war in Gaza had played a part, Mr Burgess reiterated his earlier answer that it was not the driving factor.

However, he did warn that anyone caught supporting Hamas or Hezbollah would be dealt with harshly.

"There are people in this country that will be sympathetic to and may well support them," he said.

"If they're supporting them, they're breaking the law, and if we find them, the police will be informed and that will be dealt with."

He then sought to calm any fears around the issue.

"We don't have active mass or Hezbollah groups plotting things in this country," he said.
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placematt said:
I think this was to be expected too. My thinking is that with the events happening in the UK, there might be a really big push for the digital ID path and I have seen quite a bit of advertising for this recently. They would need some sort of a catalyst to truly make it stick. Some sort of reason for mandatory uptake. And they are hammering this social media/dis info/ misinfo being the devil. No doubt they are front running it here in Australia.
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The ABC article is concentrating on youth and the online environment and it has also been suggested that a digital ID be used as proof of age for social media accounts to prevent youth from accessing it, which of course means that all adults who wish to use social media will need digital ID.

Age verification for social media: Do kids and parents even want it?​

23 May 2024
Keeping young people safe online

Age verification for social media would impact all of us. Dr Justine Humphry, Dr Catherine Page Jeffery, Dr Jonathon Hutchinson and Dr Olga Boichak from Media and Communications investigate the efficacy and risks of age-checking technologies and whether there are better approaches to mitigating online harms affecting young people.

This month the Australian government announced a A$6.5 million commitment to trial an age-verification program that will restrict children’s exposure to inappropriate online content, including pornography and potentially social media. The announcement came out of a National Cabinet meeting geared towards addressing gender-based violence in Australia.

Much has been said about age-checking technologies in the weeks since. Experts point out implementing these tools effectively (so they aren’t easily by-passed) will be complicated – and any such system could come with data security risk. Internet freedom groups have criticised the decision on account of its potential to erode privacy.

There is, however, an important dimension missing from these discussions: the voice of young people and parents. In our research into social media use and online harms affecting Australian teenagers, we asked young people and their parents what they themselves thought about age verification. We found mixed reactions from both groups.

Our findings suggest age verification is generally supported, but participants think it likely would not work. Instead, they said more safety education, face-to-face dialogue, and accountability from social media companies would be better approaches to keeping young people safe online.

Young Australians and social media​

Young Australians use social media for a variety of reasons, from keeping in touch with friends and family, to seeking information and entertainment.

Our latest research found almost a quarter of young people 12 to 17 use WhatsApp daily. One in two are daily Snapchat users. Instagram and YouTube are the most frequently used platforms, used daily by 64 percent and 56 percent of young people respectively.

These patterns are especially significant for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, who are more likely to use social media to socialise, maintain familial and cultural ties and learn about the world.

That said, social media and the internet more broadly do present risks to young people. These risks include online bullying, grooming and unsolicited contact, privacy breaches, misinformation and content that is pornographic, racist, sexist, homophobic and/or violent.

Studies have found associations between social media use and poor mental health and self-esteem, although direct causation is difficult to establish. It’s also important to note risk doesn’t equate with harm, and young people themselves commonly demonstrate skills, judgement and agency in negotiating online risks.

In an environment of heightened concern, decisions are now being made that will have significant impacts on both young people and their parents. These decisions are being fuelled by media brands, celebrities and ex-politicians seeking to influence discourse.

Elsewhere in the world, the UK’s Online Safety Bill is attempting to restrict young people’s access to online pornography, through either government-issued documents or biometrics. The UK regulator Ofcom is set to publish guidance on age-assurance compliance in early 2025. France has also been testing a system to verify age based on a user intermediary, after it enacted a law in 2023 to restrict social media use for people under 15.

The details of the trial in Australia haven’t yet been released, but it could use one or a combination of approaches.

The missing perspective​

Our research, which focused on Australian teenagers aged 12–17 and their parents, drew from focus groups and a national survey in 2022–23. Overall, the survey showed broad support for age verification. Specifically, 72% of young people and 86% of parents believed more effective age limits would improve online safety for young people.

But we also heard about several drawbacks. For instance, young people saw age verification as something that would benefit adults. One participant said:

I guess it benefits parents who want to be in the right mindset that their kids are safe on social media.

Another young person said:

I feel like in the case of lot of controlling parents it would be bad for the kid because then if the parents are controlling and they don’t have any social media to talk to people, I feel like that could negatively impact the kid. Maybe they’d get lonely, or they wouldn’t be able to use it as an outlet.

Some young people noted they could find ways around age-verification tools:

It would be simple just to get a VPN and change my country if it was going to create this obstacle.

They also pointed out such tools don’t account for evolving maturity levels and differing capabilities among young individuals.

Parents shared concerns about the burden of providing proof of their age and managing consent:
I mean depending on what kind of site it is would you be comfortable providing your passport information or your driver’s licence?

Both groups were worried about the risk of data breaches and leaks of sensitive information. As one parent told us:

Well, it certainly makes you think about it a lot more. What are they using that data for? Is it really just for age verification, or is it for something more nefarious?

Another young person also had privacy concerns:

But if I would say that I was OK with it, I think I’d be lying. Because, I’m a really private person, privacy really matters. And yeah, I do think to be safe, I think we really should be having our own privacy as well.

So what should be done?​

Governments, parents, educators and platforms all have an important role to play in ensuring young people’s safety online.

Beyond age verification, there’s a growing consensus social media companies should be doing more to ensure users’ safety. Until that happens, the best approach is for parents and children to talk to each other to determine the appropriate age for a child to be on social media. By working together, families can develop guidelines and expectations for appropriate use.

Schools can also help by developing young people’s digital literacy and online safety skills.

Ultimately, if we want young people to thrive in online environments, we need to involve them in the decisions that will directly affect them.
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So the COVID messaging was basically 'lockdown, mask up and get the shots so you don't kill granny.' And now it looks like it will be 'get a digital ID to protect kids.'
 
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