Big Tech accused of Voice ad bias

FORMER prime minister Tony Abbott has accused social media giants of trying to “censor” the case against an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament after Facebook pulled ads urging people to vote “no” in the upcoming referendum because it would give “special rights” to one group of people based on their race.

The ads, which were paid for by conservative lobby group Advance Australia, urged people to oppose a “yes” vote in the referendum because if successful, “we’ll have one race of people with special rights handed to them”.

However, Advance Australia chief Matthew Sheahan said that Facebook pulled the ads on the basis of “misinformation” because a fact check by the RMIT FactLab, relied on by Facebook, said that “the claim that the Voice will provide ‘special rights’ … has been rejected by leading constitutional experts” was incorrect.

Mr Abbott said Big Tech was joining with the government in trying to force the Voice through without a debate.

“The government is hoping to push this through on the ‘vibe’, relying on people’s goodwill and reluctance to be thought ungenerous to Aboriginal people,” Mr Abbott said.

“But it’s doing its best to slant the playing field against the ‘no’ case by not funding either side, by giving tax deductible status to the ‘yes’ case only, and now by relying on woke public companies to push the ‘yes’ case while relying on Big Tech to censor the ‘no’ case.”

Mr Sheahan said the fact checkers had got it wrong.

“The truth is you can’t fact check the Voice because it has no detail … it is a blank cheque payable to future politicians who can make up the rules as they go along,” he said.

While Advance Australia said its ads have been censored, other pro-Voice groups have run ads stating that a Voice to Parliament will mean that “First Nations people … can have a say” despite 11 members of the current parliament identifying as Aboriginal.