"A pro-censorship position could now be presented as a matter of national security."

"When people talk about disinformation today, it is almost always from within a left-wing narrative framework. The villains behind the disinformation tsunami allegedly inundating the civilised world are identified as white supremacists, misogynists, transphobes, anti-vaccination zealots, and fundamentalist Christians....
    "In normal circumstances, the pet hates of leftists don’t carry very much weight. Tragically, however, the life of the world stopped being normal in January 2020, as it became clear that a novel coronavirus – Covid-19 – was about to ignite a global pandemic. Fearful that the small but very vocal clusters of anti-vaccination zealots, located in just about all Western nations, would undermine the public health and immunological measures vital to fighting the virus, public servants began establishing anti-disinformation units to identify and counter the lies being spread about Covid-19....
    "[P]oliticians and activists moved swiftly to extend the brief of these disinformation units to encompass just about all of the Left’s pet hates. The situation was not improved by the intervention of national security agencies alarmed at the volume of Russian and Chinese disinformation pouring onto Western social media platforms.
    "From the perspective of the Left, this conflation of Far-Right disinformation with the disinformation emanating from authoritarian nation states would prove to be enormously helpful. A pro-censorship position ... could now be presented as a matter of national security. In New Zealand, willingness to buy into this aspect of the anti-disinformation project was aided by the still raw memories of the Christchurch Mosque Massacres. ...
    "What the New Zealand Left – notoriously ignorant of its own, and the international movement’s history – finds it almost impossible to accept is that disinformation (or, as it was once, more honestly, known: “propaganda”) was, and is, every bit as rampant on the revolutionary left, as it was, and is, on the reactionary right. ... Not that the state-subsidised Disinformation Project would ever acknowledge the fact..."

~ Chris Trotter, from his post 'Disinformation from the Left'

"If everything is an existential threat and words are violence, real violence can seem more and more to be justified."

 

"The politicisation of science, the honing of the activists tools for cancellation of people they don’t like, and the involvement of government in collusion with big tech and media to control 'disinformation' ... may [well] alienate and attack so many people that their supporters become a minority....
    "It is indeed ironic [however] that those who claim to be squashing existential threats to democracy, have themselves caused a climate of growing acceptance of intimidation and threats, political violence and serious violations of ... law. If everything is an existential threat and words are violence, real violence can seem more and more to be justified."

~ David Young from his post 'How the Disinformation Industrial Complex is destroying trust in science' [hat tip Watts Up With That]

The Disinformation Project: "...they scaremonger in an opportunistic way."

"The Disinformation Project was established to keep a close eye on fringe posts on social media ... sell[ing] its analysis services to social media companies and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC)....
    "[The Project's Sanja] Hattotuwa is now arguing for the Government to invest more in political infrastructure, as it did during the pandemic, to control dissident or extremist views and politics.... His critics have suggested Hattotuwa might simply be drumming up demand for business ...
    "There is an element of escalation in Hattotuwa’s own claims. In media interviews over the last few years, the statement is constantly made that the latest levels of extremism and hate are 'worse than anything he’s seen.' Each month, each year, each debate is apparently worse than the one before. A common refrain is that they are witnessing an 'exponential growth' in disinformation, or hate has grown 'inexorably.' ...
    "It is troubling [too] that the Disinformation Project only concentrates on the misinformation and disinformation of fringe actors but never on that spread by authorities. A true disinformation project would also hold governments to account for when they have been caught out distributing or endorsing misinformation....
    "The only complaint the Disinformation Project ever makes about the Government is that they aren’t investing enough money, or seeking enough advice, on defeating disinformation. As one critic suggested last week, the message about disinformation seems to be: 'It’s so bad, you need to give us money'...
    "[The Disinformation Project] are correct that extremism, hate, and disinformation are serious issues that need serious attention. But the Disinformation Project does a disservice to democracy and the fight against disinformation when they scaremonger in an opportunistic way."

~ Bryce Edwards, from his post 'The Need to Take Disinformation Seriously'