An Australian morning television show has essentially suggested that the government and big tech companies should punish and censor opposition to the C0VID-19 vaccine.
During a segment on Seven’s breakfast program Sunrise, panellists agreed there ought to be a concerted effort to ensure opposition to the vaccine is censored across major social media platforms.
The network’s Political Editor, Mark Riley suggested those who are cautious about the vaccine hold to “fruit-loop ideas” that don’t deserve to be treated as “science.”
“There are things the government can do,” Riley said. “Legally there’s a collision here between the rights of the individual and the rights of the community, but the law has deferred in favour of the community in some celebrated cases.
“So, the government can do something,” he added. “Maybe ‘No jab, No JobKeeper,’ ‘No jab, No JobSeeker.’ Would that work? Who knows? But look, the bigger problem here is the question of moral and intellectual equivalence. This is what the anti-vaxxers want. They want a debate where their fruit-loop ideas are given the same elevation as science, and we shouldn’t give them that.”
Journalist Louise Roberts agreed, saying the only reason people should refuse to take the vaccine is if they have a legitimate medical reason for doing so.
Riley went on to call for widespread censorship of opposition to the vaccine across social media networks.
“The other idea that’s really important here is the responsibility on big media companies,” he said. “By that I mean those big media companies that say they aren’t big media companies: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all these social media platforms. When all these nut-case theories are being propagated on their platforms they should pull them down.
“If they can pull down tweets from the President of the United States, they can pull down this gumph, and they should.”
Adding, “People can be worried about these things and people who maybe haven’t read deeply into it can be persuaded by it. So, there’s a real responsibility for this sort of stuff… This sort of stuff should not be allowed to be put on social media because it does persuade people, unfortunately.”
