Submitted 3 days ago by zero_gravitas@aussie.zone to australianpolitics@aussie.zone
In short:
An Australian bank has frozen the accounts of a prominent Neo-Nazi leader, while a US-based technology firm has blocked the group’s attempts to solicit donations online.
The nation’s corporate watchdog has also revoked the group’s proposed company name, “White Australia”.
Despite these actions, the Neo-Nazi organisation claims it has collected 1,495 of the 1,500 signatures required to register as a federal political party.
So, they’re enabling more crypto use ?
In the parallel timeline in which Dutton won the election, White Australia still has its name and bank accounts (“free speech”), while a dozen people allegedly connected with the designated terrorist movement Antifa have had their accounts frozen.
The article says that apart from the ASIC parts, companies are doing this independently, not due to government pressure. There are a few foreign neo-Nazi groups on Australia’s terrorist entity list, but the NSN are not officially considered a terrorist group, despite repeatedly committing violent political terrorists acts on citizens. (Also, the AEC has said it appears White Australia will likely be able to register that party name electorally)
That all said, it is important that we as citizens continue to develop the power to push these companies to repress neo-Nazis and not pro-social political activists.
Good to see these financial institutions doing the right thing here. Our current political economy is dominated by private institutions so it’s important that some are doing this, and it’s important for us to build the power to pressure others into doing likewise.
ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 days ago
Maybe everyone considers this to be good progress, but banks have been shutting down the accounts or refusing to process payments for all the groups they disagree with for many years. For example, adult games on Steam. In this case it might seem justified but as we move to a digital only society this is a pretty dystopion look when you take a step back
eureka@aussie.zone 3 days ago
I don’t see it as progress, but good in this scenario. Like you said, this isn’t a new development at all.
I think it already is. Has been for over a century, for many people. The bottom line is private companies can essentially shut people out of employment, if they want. It’s tough to live like that, that’s why anti-discrimination legislation has been so important. So yes, I do cheer when a company decides to, or is pressured into, removing confirmed neo-Nazis from employment, but I’m aware that we don’t want to revert to a society where people are unreasonably removed due to age, ethnicity, sex/gender, union status, etc… Not all politics is equal or equivalent, neo-Nazism is inherently and proudly harmful to most of society, there’s no “both sides” symmetry.
I’m definitely familiar with censorship and oppression powers being used against both reactionary and progressive groups. In fact, that’s an important part of how Lemmy was founded and grew. And it’s also why socialist groups campaigned against some of the protest laws introduced under the guise of being anti-Nazi legislation, which clearly didn’t achieve it’s purported goals. You’re right to be skeptical about institutions making political decisions with their power.
As for private companies, these political decisions are typically either guided by the personal beliefs of the owners/shareholders (see Elon Musk’s influence on twitter’s speech restrictions, or any mass media company) or by public pressure and reputational risk (see reddit only deleting some controversial communities once they make it into a newspaper, or the millions of companies making paper-thin political signalling efforts in line with whatever political positions are widely popular).
Because of this, I believe it’s important for us to build worker power as citizens to be able to pressure these companies into making pro-social political decisions, instead of anti-social political decisions in the interests of their rich shareholders. In a word, make private companies care about us, because most of them don’t.
Nath@aussie.zone 3 days ago
Banks are mercenary. They have zero positions they “disagree with”. They refuse to do business with companies and organisations for only one reason: It’s unprofitable.
There are Millions of people who will alter their banking behaviour over things like “Bank X is the Nazi bank”. I would. It’s the same story with porn (not so much in Australia, but absolutely a thing in the USA). A reputation of being the “porno bank” would lead to millions of people changing their bank. And so, banks won’t do business with porn providers. If the people didn’t care, neither would the banks.
ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 days ago
Where are these people that “care” about MasterCard processing steam transactions?