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IPFS News Link • Australia

Google and Facebook join rights groups to fight Australia's encryption bill

• https://www.theguardian.com, Christopher Knaus

Tech heavyweights Google and Facebook have joined civil and digital rights groups in an unusual alliance aimed at defeating Australia's planned encryption laws.

The Alliance for a Safe and Secure Internet brings together the disparate groups in a plea for the government to "slow down" and listen to "legitimate concerns" about its encryption bill.

The alliance includes rights groups such as the Human Rights Law Centre, Digital Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the Communications Alliance – an industry group featuring telcos Optus and Telstra. It also features the Digital Industry Group Inc (Digi), an industry body including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon as members.

Lizzie O'Shea, a spokeswoman for the new alliance, said the group's membership was diverse and typically did not agree on policy issues. But she said they were united for the first time in their opposition to the government's encryption bill.


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