The federal government has previously maintained that its proposed misinformation laws would not allow the government to censor the internet. Communications minister Michelle Rowland even declared the government would have ‘no interest and no power [over] what individual users may be posting’. Instead, Rowland said these laws would focus on ‘systemic issues, it’s not about moderating content … there’s no power to remove or request the removal of individual posts’.

This was always a dubious claim.