Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull want to call in bot cops

Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have signalled they want the AFP to investigate how their petition calling for a royal commission into the media was infiltrated by bots.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP

Former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have signalled they want the Australian Federal Police to investigate how their petition calling for a royal commission into the media was infiltrated by more than 1000 overseas computer-generated bots.

The Australian revealed on Tuesday the petition, which targets publicly listed companies News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment and prompted a Greens-led Senate inquiry into media diversity, had been interfered with by a paid foreign actor.

Parliament’s standing committee on petitions is now set to consider referring the bots’ infiltration to the AFP as one of its members, Liberal MP Julian Simmonds, said the integrity of the media royal commission petition and the whole e-petition system was under question.

Mr Rudd took to Twitter on Wednesday to again attack News Corp after Melbourne whistleblower Nicholas Smith used a Bangladeshi IT expert to prove the parliamentary e-petition system could be easily compromised and manipulated.

Mr Rudd purported to have gathered more than 500,000 signatures in his campaign for a media royal commission. However, an investigation by The Australian and a cyber expert showed widespread use of fake and absurd names on the petition, in addition to the 1000 Mr Smith collected from overseas.

The former prime minister was axed by his own party while in power and later lost an election after knifing Julia Gillard but blames News Corp for his demise. He accused the whistleblower, Mr Smith, whose only interest was to expose flaws in the parliamentary petition system of being a “far right-wing nut job”. Mr Rudd also asked for the AFP to investigate.

“Given this is a cyber-­assault on the Australian parliament website, will Murdoch guarantee they will co-operate now with the AFP on their knowledge of this far-right ­attack?”

Given that this is a cyber-assault on the Australian Parliament website, will Murdoch guarantee they will cooperate now with the AFP on their knowledge of this far-right attack? #MurdochRoyalCommission /4

— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) November 18, 2020

This view was shared by Mr Turnbull, who defended Mr Rudd, saying: “Will the Oz assist the AFP with their inquiries into whether this conduct — designed to mislead parliament — involved any offences?” he tweeted.

Documents obtained by The Australian confirmed the whistleblower a ­paid a cybersecurity specialist — who initially claimed to be in China but was later found to be living in Bangladesh — to organise the fake signatures.

Both Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull, who have been advocating for a royal commission into News Corp, the publisher of The Australian, for several months, were approached on Wednesday to clarify their positions on an AFP inquiry into the petition’s infiltration.

Mr Rudd’s spokesman attacked The Australian, saying the exposure of the bots was evidence of “outright bias only further undermines public confidence in the news media, and underlines the need for a royal commission”.

A spokeswoman for petitions committee chairman Ken O’Dowd said a referral to police would be considered while Mr Simmonds said: “Australians ... have a right to know it is free from mischief emanating from overseas.”