☕️ New doxxing laws introduced

For all the sports fans out there, you’re likely in for a big weekend, with the finals kicking off tonight in the NRL, as well as the second week of finals in the AFL.

In case you didn’t know, TDA has a sport newsletter dedicated to breaking down sport news in a quick and accessible way.

I highly recommend signing up here! (Yes, I’m biased.)

“Here is the answer that the commissioner should have provided to the very clear question regarding the racism, misogyny, and harassment experienced by the players: There is absolutely no place in sport – or in life – for the vile hate… our players are facing on social media”
The union for the WNBA – the top professional basketball league for women in the U.S. – has criticised recent comments from the league’s commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, who failed to condemn racist and bitter criticism from fans.

405,999
The number of people who visited the U.S. online voting website in the 24 hours after Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, according to CBS News. In her post, Swift urged her followers to do their own research and to ensure they are registered to vote.

2004
Oprah Winfrey gave away almost 300 cars to her talk show audience. You might know this moment from the “you get a car, you get a car” meme.

The Federal Government has introduced new legislation to outlaw “doxxing” — the malicious online sharing of someone’s private information, like their phone number and address.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said doxxing has led to “public embarrassment, humiliation, shaming, discrimination, stalking and identify theft and financial fraud.”

Under the proposed laws, offenders could face up to seven years in prison.

It follows calls for better regulations to protect users online.

According to the eSafety Commissioner, doxxing is “the intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, private information or personal details without their consent”.

The online watchdog says some perpetrators are “motivated by wanting to expose wrongdoing,” but that doxxing can also be used “to exert control” after a breakup.

This is known as ‘technology-facilitated coercive control’.

A 2023 report from the Australian Institute of Criminology found that around 4% of people had experienced doxxing in their lifetime.

The Government announced plans to ban the practice earlier this year. It came after the contents of a WhatsApp group with over 600 Jewish Australians was leaked online and shared widely by pro-Palestinian activists.

The leak also included a spreadsheet of more than 100 Jewish people with photos of them and links to their social media accounts.

A collective statement posted by some activists defended the leak, saying the chat demonstrated “the coordinated efforts of many working to silence support for Palestinian liberation”.

The statement said: “There were no addresses shared. There were no phone numbers shared. These were deliberately redacted.”

The leak was condemned by the Government and Opposition. Dreyfus said the incident was “shocking” but not isolated.

The Government has now introduced legislation to make doxxing a criminal offence.

This includes a maximum penalty of up to six years in prison for sharing someone’s data without their permission in a “menacing or harassing” way.

A harsher penalty of up to seven years in jail will be introduced for deliberately doxxing someone based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, or ethnic origin.

Dreyfus noted that doxxing is “often used against women in the context of domestic and family violence.”

The Government needs support from the Coalition, or the Greens and a handful of crossbenchers, to pass the bill.

The Opposition has previously said it would support efforts to outlaw doxxing. However, the Government’s proposed ban will be put forward as one part of a bigger privacy reform bill. It’s unclear if the Coalition will vote in favour of the reforms.

Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash told TDA privacy reform is “highly technical and far-reaching”, and said the Coalition was examining the bill “in detail.”

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

CW: Distressing content

A man in France has pleaded guilty to sedating his then-wife, raping her, and inviting other men to rape her for ten years.

Court proceedings against Dominique Pélicot – and 50 other men accused of raping his now ex-wife Gisèle with his approval – began last week.

Under French law, complainants have the right to remain private during a trial.

Instead, Gisèle Pélicot has insisted on “complete, total publicity”.

“When other women... wake up with no memory, they might remember the testimony of Ms. Pélicot,” she said.

Gisèle Pélicot and Dominique Pélicot got married when they were both 21. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

In November 2020, Dominique was investigated by police after he was caught filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket in southeastern France, where he and his wife lived.

Police allege that when they searched Dominique’s computer, they found a folder labelled “abuses”containing over 20,000 images of an unconscious woman being raped by many men.

Gisèle told the court that “police saved my life” by investigating her husband’s computer and bringing her in for questioning.

She had no memory of the rapes and did not recognise any of the men in the images shown to her.

During her testimony, Gisèle recounted experiencing “total blackouts” beginning in 2011. By 2013, she became increasingly worried about developing Alzheimer’s disease due to chronic memory lapses, weight loss, and hair loss.

She said: “I didn’t understand why I had these moments like this.”

Dominique has admitted to putting sleeping pills into his wife’s evening meals to sedate her before raping her, and arranging for others to rape her from 2011 to 2020.

He told police that while Gisèle was unconscious, he invited a number of men to their home to film them raping her.

Dominique met most of these men via a now-banned online chat forum. Their ages range between 26 and 74.

Of the 83 suspects in the footage, police have identified and charged 50.

Dominique has pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, which include aggravated rape, drugging, and violating the privacy of his wife.

His lawyer described his actions as “a form of addiction,” and told reporters that Dominique “is ashamed of what he did, it is unforgivable.”

He is also accused of violating the privacy of his daughter and two daughters-in-law after illicit photos of them were also found on his devices.

Dominique faces up to 20 years in prison.

Most of the other 50 defendants have been charged with aggravated rape, and could face up to 20 years if convicted.

Many have pleaded not guilty, with some saying they thought they were in a consensual roleplaying scenario where Gisèle pretended to be asleep.

Gisèle disputed those claims, saying: “They knew exactly what they were doing and what shape I was in... [these videos] are scenes of horror for me”.

Similarly, Dominique said “everyone knew” Gisèle was drugged and unconscious, adding that “each individual had free will” and could have “left the premises.”

The trial comes amid calls to change the country’s attitude towards sexual violence, led by high-profile French actor Judith Godrèche.

In February, Godrèche, 51, publicly alleged a director she worked with when she was 14 sexually assaulted her on the set of a film.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, French journalist Rokhaya Diallo said the country had been slow to embrace the #MeToo movement, but that the support for Godrèche “signaled that perhaps the larger culture here is finally ready to push back.”

Advocates are now urging French lawmakers to include the term consent in the legal definition of rape.

Under current French law, rape is defined as “an act of sexual penetration… committed on a person, with violence, coercion, threat, or surprise.”

In March, President Emmanuel Macron said he supported this change.

1800 RESPECT
Call: 1800 737 732
Text: 0458 737 732

Reporting by Chloe Christie.

Introducing Skipper - cleaning products that double as decor. Chic.

Skipper specialises in concentrated tablet alternatives for everyday products to help reduce waste. They’ve got you covered for all your daily essentials, including hand wash, body wash, laundry detergent, and even household cleaners!

Here’s how it works: Simply fill one of their chic reusable dispensers with water, drop in a tablet, and let it dissolve. In minutes, you’re good to go!

Switch to Skipper today and build your own bundle to get up to $120 off!

It took “ultra-cyclist” Lael Wilcox 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes to cover an area of nearly 30,000km. Wilcox beat a 2018 record set by Scottish cyclist Jenny Graham by 16 days. After finishing the journey in Chicago, the new world record holder said she felt like she “could’ve just kept riding forever!”

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Chloe Christie.

A new documentary about musician Pharrell Williams, called Piece by Piece, is set to be released soon. This documentary will be different to others you might have seen: it’s an animated LEGO film.

The film includes interviews and narrations from an A-list cast, including Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Gwen Stefani.

However, none of these major celebrities knew they were going to be in a film depicted as LEGO characters.

The Happy singer told Variety that he “purposely did not tell anyone” that they would be LEGOs. “We wanted people to just answer the questions and really give their full, unedited reactions.”

Williams said he didn’t want the artists to feel like they were speaking for a kids movie, because he described his documentary to be “for human beings”.

Apparently the celebrities involved were “pleasantly surprised and incredibly supportive” when it was revealed that they’d be turned into LEGOs!

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

Over the past few months, you may have seen headlines that two astronauts are currently stuck in space.

To be clear, NASA and Boeing have really tried to deny that these astronauts are stuck or stranded.

But we do know one thing. The two astronauts were only meant to be in space for eight days, but now they will be there for at least eight months.

So how did this all unfold? We are going to get to the bottom of it in today’s deep dive.