Melbourne teenage political commentator says electoral rules out of date

The Melbourne founder of a left-wing Instagram account who breached the state’s electoral rules fears laws making them identify themselves are a safety risk.

A Melbourne teenage political commentator who breached the state’s electoral rules fears laws which require them to identify themselves will put them at risk.

The founder of popular left-wing Instagram account The Virtuous Victorian (@thevirtuousvictorian) says they are being “unfairly targeted” for sharing political content to younger users.

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) probed the account and found it violated the electoral act by posting influential unauthorised “electoral matter”.

Section 83 of the 2002 Electoral Act says electoral advertisements, handbills, pamphlets or notices must be authorised by including a name and address on the material.

In the case of the 18-year-old behind The Virtuous Victorian account, this requirement would compel them to release their home address, where they live with their family.

Speaking to the Herald Sun, The Virtuous Victorian said they feared for their personal safety if they published their name and home address.

Other young users have posted under the account, which the founder said put them at risk of having to publish their personal information.

“I don’t know who would want to have the account silenced and whether they could make use of my address or my name to take matters into their own hands and send me messages or come to my personal address to try and intimidate me like that,” the founder said.

“The Virtuous Victorian is a passion project and we don’t have a premises or an office space, and so if we wanted to authorise, we’d have to use my home address which was not a step I’m willing to take.”

Captions on the account include: “Want Scott Morrison gone? Put the Liberals last. Simple as that”.

Another reads: “Matthew Dodgy Guy loses shifty chief of staff, hires best friend”.

To keep posting content, the owner must wind back his political opinions that are often attached to news updates.

“It is a left-leaning account, but it is more likely to kind of criticise the government of the day, which happened to be the Liberal Party (before the May federal election),” the account owner said.

“There have been posts that have been critical of both sides, but there is definitely a left-leaning progressive bias.”

The Melbourne teen said the laws around political comments were outdated and did not take into account the rise of social media.

“It (the law) obviously hasn’t been made with the context of social media, and is being incorrectly applied to social media,” they said.

“It’s perfectly legal to lie in political advertising. So there’s this grey area that I think is unfairly targeting us when there are other things that the VEC probably should be looking at.”

The account, which posts updates on Victorian and federal political events using colourful graphics and explainers, was reported to the VEC in August.

The VEC defines “electoral matter” as anything that could affect the way someone votes in an election, such as advertisements, handbills, pamphlets or, more recently as determined by the Electoral Commissioner, social media posts.

Individuals found to have breached electoral laws can face fines of up to $1817.

Fines jump to $9087 for a body corporate.