Moves to protect women and vulnerable Victorians from online trolls gets green light from state government
Women and transgender people would receive special protection from online trolls under a new law proposed in Victoria, with the state government approving an inquiry into the issue.
VIC News
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The proposal to extend Victoria’s hate speech laws to protect women and transgender people is one step closer with the Andrews Government agreeing to probe the idea further.
Reason Party MP Fiona Patten, welcomed the move to hold an inquiry into the plan in the upper house this morning saying it was a “win for Reason”.
“I appreciate the government’s acknowledgment that our current anti-vilification laws need to be updated and welcome an inquiry process to work out how we best protect women, the LGBTIQ community and people with a disability from bigoted hate speech that incites hatred and violence,” she said.
Ms Patten’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Amendment Bill 2019 aims to extend Victoria’s anti-vilification laws and could see online trolls targeting people on gender, jailed for six months.
Currently the laws are reserved to racial and religious vilification.
The plan will be considered by the committee, which could pave the way for a plan to be put into law later this year.
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Ms Patten announced the bill last month, warning many women in the public eye were targets for online trolling.
The move has been labelled as controversial by some, with Liberal Democrats MP David Limbrick and Institute of Public Affairs saying it could have unintended impacts.
Public Affairs’s Morgan Begg said the proposed law was “section 18C on steroids”.
“Just like section 18C at the federal level, the proposed anti-vilification laws are vaguely worded and contain no objective standard for unlawful speech. Each judge will have their own view on what is ‘likely to incite hatred’ or ‘severe ridicule’.”
“The Government must immediately rule out supporting this speech-stifling bill.”