Canberra’s Sock Puppet Power

At first, I thought it was a gee-up.

You know the feeling. You read something so outrageous that the bulldust radar immediately starts screaming: 'That can’t possibly be true'.

Maybe in some Orwellian nightmare. Maybe in a dystopian novel about an authoritarian state.

But Australia?

Surely no Australian government would seriously propose giving a government regulator the power to create “false or fictitious identities” — an army of online “sock puppets” — and then use those fake identities to generate and disseminate material using artificial intelligence.

Surely not?

So I checked.

I went to the Australian Government’s own website and read the exposure draft of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026.

And there it was, in black and white.

SECTION 205G — SOCK PUPPET IDENTITIES

A sock puppet identity is defined as:

“a false or fictitious identity assumed by a person in the course of using, or carrying out any activity in relation to, an online service.”

Then comes this:

SECTION 205J — COMMISSIONER MAY ASSUME SOCK PUPPET IDENTITIES

“The Commissioner may assume a sock puppet identity for the purposes of performing the Commissioner’s functions or exercising the Commissioner’s powers under this Act.”

And then this extraordinary provision:

SECTION 205K — ACTIVITIES THAT MAY BE UNDERTAKEN USING SOCK PUPPET IDENTITIES

The draft expressly authorises — “without limitation” — the use of sock puppet identities by the Commissioner to “generate material using an online service (including by means of artificial intelligence)”.

Read those words again.

“FALSE OR FICTITIOUS IDENTITIES.”

"THE USE OF SOCK PUPPET IDENTITIES BY THE COMMISSIONER"

“GENERATE MATERIAL”

“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”

“WITHOUT LIMITATION”

This is not some conspiracy theory circulating on social media.

It is written in an Australian Government exposure draft.

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Whatever justification the government offers for these provisions, no Australian should be comfortable with a government regulator being expressly empowered to operate behind false identities and generate AI material online.

The potential for abuse should be obvious.

Today, the government may tell you these powers will be used for benign regulatory purposes.

But legislation should never be judged solely on assurances about how the people currently holding power intend to use it.

You judge a power by how it could be used by the worst person who might one day inherit it.

Imagine these powers in the hands of your political opponents.

Imagine government officials operating anonymously in online discussions.

Imagine Australians having no idea whether the person they are debating what they are reading is actually a real citizen but is a fictitious identity being operated by the state.

That should send a chill down the spine of every Australian who values open political debate.

This has nothing to do with whether you are Labor, Liberal, National, One Nation, Libertarian, Green, independent or politically homeless.

This is about the relationship between the citizen and the state.

A democratic government should not casually grant its regulators powers to masquerade as fictitious people online.

It should not normalise state-sponsored deception.

This is the most obnoxious piece of legislation ever dumped onto the floor of the Federal Parliament.

No government in a democratic nation should have such powers. And yet this is being proposed by the most dishonest and deceptive government in our nation’s history, led by a Prime Minister who is a proven serial and habitual liar.

It is the kind of power grab you would expect from a crumbling fascist or communist regime trying to entrench their powers. This has “nothing to do with online safety” or "protecting children". It is an attempt to legalise state-sponsored deception. 

The law should actually be the exact reverse - it should be a criminal offence, punishable by jail terms for any government officials to create false and fictitious online accounts. 

This current proposal is an international embarrassment to Australia. It has already sullied our reputation.

Everyone involved in this grotesque totalitarian scheme has no place in public office.

And worse, these powers are proposed to be given to the eSafety Karen, an anti-free-speech zealot, a sickening control freak who wants to dictate what “the Australians” can hear, see and think; nefarious activities that the US Bill of Rights and its First Amendment would prevent her from undertaking in her home country.

Whatever side of politics you are on, imagine your political opponents holding these powers.

This is a hill worth fighting on. We need to fight this as though we were fighting on the Kokoda Track in 1942.

This legislation must be defeated.

Every Australian of all political persuasions needs to rise and defeat this.

And thank goodness we have the moral clarity of One Nation to oppose this.  

TO THE BARRICADES!

“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful … and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
– George Orwell