
Woman Arrested for Facebook Post Promoting Anti-Lockdown Protest in Australia - isolli
https://gizmodo.com/woman-arrested-for-facebook-post-promoting-anti-lockdow-1844926107
======
htnsao
> Police in Australia arrested a 28-year-old woman on Wednesday for publishing
> a Facebook post that promotes an anti-lockdown protest in the country’s
> state of Victoria. Footage of the arrest was captured by her partner and
> shows police officers handcuffing the woman and saying that she’s being
> charged with “incitement.” The woman’s phone and computers were also seized.

> “I didn’t realize I was doing anything wrong. This is ridiculous,” the woman
> says.

> Australia remains the only wealthy democracy in the world that doesn’t have
> anything equivalent to America’s First Amendment protections for free
> speech.

Wow. That's draconian.

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raxxorrax
Hm. I don't think protesting lockdowns right now is productive. Yes, your
freedom is curtailed and officially I think no government has the right to
enforce it to the letter. I also don't think safety from infections is
something individuals have the right to expect from society. That is a
personal risk and you can stay home if you are that afraid. Not saying
dangerous infections don't need to be communicated to health officials, but
there is a limit what you can expect and it does concern bodily autonomy.

But given the situation it might be prudent to just accept it for a limited
time. Not for your government, just for your fellow citizens. If we are still
locked down a year from now, I would join the protests without further
thought.

What really sucks is getting arrested for a facebook post. That is plain
government abuse in my opinion. I am very convinced it will bite people in
favor of such measures in the ass one day. Actually I hope so because
sometimes stupidity needs to be painful and it might spawn real progress for
once.

~~~
vixen99
So if this virus doesn't go away (as with influenza which kills thousands
every year) and the predicted vaccines don't measure up, will Australia
continue to arrest folk who post far from unreasonable opinions. Sounds like a
totalitarian society. What other opinions won't be tolerated in the future?

~~~
raxxorrax
I think arresting people for posts on social media is always a display of
exceptional weakness of government. I would probably vote for the other guys,
but I am not too deep into Australian politics.

I think many defer the justification for such a step into the future, but at
some point there isn't any justification for a lockdown.

In practice many people already ignore it anyway, which could be bad. But it
is beyond any state to enforce it.

