Articles by Free Speech Union

Source: Free Speech Union · The Free Speech Union is raising serious concerns about the Department of Internal Affairs beginning to recruit staff to implement and enforce the proposed under-16 social media ban despite the legislation not yet being written, let alone debated. · A newly advertised senior role confirms officials are already building the enforcement architecture for the policy, including “the establishment of the Phase One…

A Growing Public Response · Late on Friday afternoon, the Broadcasting Standards Authority moved on three complaints against The Platform, requesting recordings of broadcasts that were never aired on traditional channels. Each of the programmes in question was published online. · That decision has triggered a significant public response. · Around 12,000 New Zealanders have now written to the Broadcasting Minister through the Free Speech…

The Free Speech Union commends Minister Goldsmith’s instinct to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority and says a proposal by former District Court Judge David Harvey for a unified regulator covering media standards and online harm deserves serious consideration. Goldsmith told the Ryan Bridge Today show he is “tempted to scrap” the 37-year-old BSA, with both NZ First and ACT supporting abolition. Harvey’s proposal goes further, replacing…

The Courts of New Zealand had 6,200 followers on X. They walked away and set up on Bluesky, where they now have 113. That is a 98% drop in audience for official court information, and no one has explained why. They are not alone. A growing number of government agencies have quietly abandoned X, one of New Zealand’s most widely used platforms with approximately 716,000 users, without publishing a rationale, conducting a cost-benefit analysis, or…

The Free Speech Union is calling on the Government to do the work that the Education and Workforce Committee did not: define the specific harms, identify the gaps in existing law, and develop targeted solutions, rather than reaching for a blanket social media ban that even UK child safety charities say will not work. · On 5 March, the Education and Workforce Committee released its final report after a nine-month inquiry into online harms facing…

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 has confirmed that the government’s pandemic response frequently overstepped its bounds and suppressed legitimate dissent. The Free Speech Union says the report proves that the state used censorship as a primary tool to manage the public. "The 'single source of truth' has been exposed as a single source of silence," says Jillaine Heather, CEO of the Free Speech Union. The Commission confirms that…

“The Free Speech Union says our government should be grateful to the Union, and the thousands of New Zealanders who helped persuade our politicians not to pass ‘hate speech’ law, and who stood up for our long proud tradition of not jumping to ban unwelcome arguments and protests. “Last week's UK High Court ruling against the British government’s enforcement of its ban on the activist group Palestine Action again shows the folly of trying to…

The Free Speech Union has written to Speaker of the House, Rt Hon. Gerry Brownlee after the @NZParliament account announced today that it "will no longer be posting updates on X," abandoning a platform used by nearly one million New Zealanders in an election year. · X has approximately 933,000 users in New Zealand, representing over 22% of adults. New Zealand ranks first globally for average session time on the platform. Parliament's…

“New Zealand should learn from the problems emerging in Australia's new anti-hate legislation, not seek to replicate them, says the Free Speech Union. "Australia's Parliament passed sweeping new laws in an emergency late-night session with barely three days of public consultation," said Jillaine Heather, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. · The Bondi tragedy was horrific and antisemitism is a genuine problem. But when legal experts,…

“The Free Speech Union warns that the United Kingdom's threat to block X entirely over Grok AI failures shows how online safety regulation rapidly escalates from addressing illegal content to silencing entire platforms." “UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed this week that all options are on the table, including blocking X under the Online Safety Act, after Grok AI was used to create child sexual abuse material. Indonesia became the first…