Shellenberger Claims Labor Advisers Unaware of eSafety’s ‘Sock Puppet’ Powers

U.S. academic Michael Shellenberger has met with Australian Labor government officers to discuss the impending digital “duty of care” laws and new powers to create and use fake online profiles.

Shellenberger, who publishes his research online, said parliamentary advisors told him the new bill was necessary to block the online streaming of Nidal Hasan’s execution, according to his post on X.

The former U.S. Army psychiatrist was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009.

“When I asked why they needed to censor that video, one said it was to prevent copycat killings,” Shellenberger said.

The ecomodernist activist says such reasoning would allow the government to also block footage of the December Bondi Beach terrorist attack, which killed 15 people during a Jewish festival.

Shellenberger claimed the staffers said Bondi would be classified as news and free from being blocked, but he disputed this arguing the new Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 would give authorities the power to “censor the news.”

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“And they didn’t have a response to it,” Shellenberger said. “The government wants the power to arbitrarily censor scenes of violent crime, or violence, for any reason.”

“I felt like I was in Soviet Russia,” he said.

The Epoch Times contacted the communications minister’s office for comment to confirm Shellenberger’s meeting.

Shellenberger also said the staffers were unaware of provisions that would allow Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to create fictitious social media accounts, also known as “sock puppet” accounts.

On Oct. 13, Communications Minister Anika Wells defended these provisions, arguing the powers were necessary to protect Australians, particularly children, from harmful online content.

Wells cited a study by Australian researchers examining 1,204 pieces of pro-eating-disorder content across six platforms. Using sock puppet accounts, researchers reported the material to test whether platforms would remove it.

Wells said only 10.7 percent of the reported content was removed by Instagram, 7 percent by YouTube, and 4.5 percent by X.

She said the eSafety Commissioner and accredited researchers needed the ability to check if social media platforms were implementing proper safeguard systems.

“The [opposition] Coalition have asked for an explanation of why sock-puppet accounts are needed,” she said.

“This is why: to hold these companies to account for the harm they are causing young Australians, to not just listen to what the companies are saying but to check what they are actually doing.”

Yet Shellenberger questioned whether the powers could be used for purposes beyond testing safety.

“No government should ever try to censor citizens for political speech. No government should ever speak to its citizens through a fake name.”