Bro, this is the most Australia news story ever right here. Check out what the Labor Party wants to do with Aussies' smart TVs.
Yup, no worries, mate, the government's got your back and will be your first, second, third, and fourth source of news. Isn't that just peachy?
Here's a recent headline from Australia's state-funded media, just so you know the kind of info they're pushing:
For context, think of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Special Broadcast Service as wings of the government similar to our own PBS.
The ABC and SBS could soon be boosted ahead of many Australian commercial media outlets on smart TVs, including through manipulated search results for news stories, as the Labor party prepares to introduce "prominence" legislation.
Labor is mounting a draconian push to regulate devices in living rooms which will limit the freedom of Australians to see the most relevant content when they switch on their TV.
The move has been pushed by the FreeTV lobby group, together with the ABC and SBS, which wants manufacturers to pre-install all TV apps from their brands on home screens and offer their specific content first in search results and recommendations.
The "FreeTV" lobby group is lobbying to manipulate what's on your TV.
Man, what's that year again? The one between 1983 and 1985. It's slipping my mind at the moment. I'll have to check the search bar on my smart TV later for it since I still have the freedom to do so in America.
More from the story:
FreeTV's expectations for how this legislation should work extends as far as people searching for news content through voice-activated TVs, with their submission into the proposed legislation demanding "if a Regulated Device is voice activated, when a consumer asks for "news", the consumer must first be offered the Local TV Services that provide news content, with priority given to any such Local TV Services that the consumer has previously accessed".
This means that manufacturers of devices will be required to preference the ABC, SBS, and commercial outlets including Nine and Seven, over other commercial media outlets for news coverage regardless of popularity or relevance to what the viewer wants to watch.
Labor's own proposal paper into the matter - titled Prominence Framework for Connected TV Devices - admits these laws will help free-to-air broadcasters gain an advantage in the streaming age.
I love how they frame this as government broadcasters "gaining an advantage" in the streaming game. Like bro, we all know what you're doing here.
This is straight-up dystopian sci-fi and there's no other way to look at it.
You'll be guided not simply away from alternative news, but toward government news. They want you to ingest their stories the way they spin them; and they don't want to you accidentally stumble across the truth, lest you become less of a subject of their tyranny.
There's absolutely no way this law passes in Australia without a fight. Even after Covid, I think the Aussies have got a little fight left in them.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
