Public servants at the Digital Transformation Agency tried to stop the government’s proposed digital identity bill being used to remove anonymity from social media platforms, after former minister Stuart Robert suggested it as a way to stop online trolling, internal documents reveal.
The federal government has been pursuing a number of programs to verify the identity and the age of Australians online. The Digital Transformation Agency has drafted a Trusted Digital Identity Bill, while the eSafety Commissioner has been developing an age verification roadmap to solve a thorny problem: how can you prove the identity and age of someone behind a computer?
While there are benefits for people, governments and businesses, there are also concerns about the program, including the risk to privacy that comes from linking someone’s identity to suggested uses such as accessing pornography, buying alcohol or gambling online.
In the preparation for an October 2021 meeting between the Office of the eSafety Commissioner and the Digital Transformation Agency, a prepared memo for the eSafety Commissioner’s office suggests that staff were surprised to hear the then minister for employment, workforce, skills, small and family business Stuart Robert suggest in a Sky News interview using the trusted digital identity scheme to reveal the identity of people behind social media accounts.
“It’s not a big step to go forward to say: well, hang on, maybe we should be using digital identity for […] areas where identity needs to be proven,” the minister said, referring to holding social media companies to account over trolling.
“Has the DTA been requested to take any action relating to these public comments?” a section of the eSafety Commissioner’s office memo reads.
Notes made during the meeting show that staff from the Digital Transformation Agency hoped to hose down any scope creep for the trusted identity scheme: “Noted they are still trying to keep other ideas/suggestions for the digital ID at bay.”
Using the trusted digital identity scheme to reveal the identity of social media trolls would only be possible where Australians were forced to link their social media accounts to their government digital identity — a significantly broader use of the scheme than currently suggested.
The meeting minutes also reveal that Mastercard was so enthusiastic about being part of a Digital Transformation Agency trial of using its age verification technology that it published a media release about its involvement without even telling the agency.
“Did not clear the element of release that flagged Mastercard was to be involved with AV trials,” says the October 2021 meeting minutes.
These minutes also show that another age verification company, Yoti, also proactively contacted the Digital Transformation Agency to be involved. The interest from these companies is an indication of the value for the private sector to be involved in this potentially lucrative government program.
Australian governments on all sides have a dismal record of achievement with anything to do with information technology.
There can be no surer prelude to a frightful outcome than “Hello I’m from the government – I’m here to help fix the internet”.
Stuart Robert suggested this? Right….
Thankfully, Nosferatu has returned to the anonymity of his coffin……………
Yeah… “trusted digital identity scheme”. That’s because we trust the government right? They come up with the most innocuous sounding reasons that open up Pandora’s box in our rights. Just for fun, turn your phone off regularly before you leave the house.
Don’t take it!
Meh, just make everyone log in to myGov to get online in the first place. Problem solved! Everyone can be tracked everywhere, all of the time, whatever they’re doing. We can be even more like China!
Does it help if I point out that Mastercard is owned by the Singapore Government and is registered as a company which provides education and bridges. It does not pay tax in Australia.
We all know that the Singaporean government is an extension of the original dictatorship and runs a banking system which makes the Swiss Banks seem positively open.
Why would they wish to unmask “trolls” in Australia to please a minister (now ex, Brother Stewie) who did/ does not comply with the parliamentary register of assets and businesses?
Is anyone left in Australaia who believes this was about ‘trolls’? Seems a pretty obvious crack at protestors to me, and given the behaviour against them by ‘police’ on private property recently, I reckon it’s not a stretch.