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Going off deep end, Australia testing Orwellian selfie check-in program to verify home quarantine

October 6, 2021 | | Print Article

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Multiple Australian states have begun testing Orwellian apps that would force quarantined Aussies to upload selfies to prove that they’re actually quarantining.

Designed for people forced to quarantine after traveling, the apps function by sending notifications to quarantined Australians at “random times” asking that they upload a selfie of themselves, according to Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley.

Foley announced Victoria’s own app trial on Sept. 28th.

“Participants will receive advice via the smartphone as to their obligation at random times to provide a selfie back to the public health teams. Should that not be responded to in a period of time, follow-up calls or visits are made so as to make sure that the person is where they should be,” he said.

Roughly 175 people are participating in the trial. Once notified, they’ll have only five minutes to comply.

According to InnovationAus, an Australian magazine covering government policy, this is “a significantly shorter window than similar apps in other states.”

“South Australia has been conducting its own pilot using its Home Quarantine SA app, with users contacted at random by the app and required to provide proof of their location via a selfie within 15 minutes. If this isn’t done, then the user will receive a phone call from the health department and then potentially a check from the police,” the magazine notes.

Victoria’s especially draconian restriction has piqued the public’s attention thanks to the following news report produced by Nine News:

“Today the call has gone out to everyone in home quarantine in Victoria to take part of a pilot program,” a Nine News reporter happily announces in the clip above.

“And what that means is they will receive random phone calls and they will have to answer within five minutes with a selfie sent to this app which will then geo-track where that person is and to make sure they are who they say they are as well. If they don’t answer within the five minutes, that’s when health officers come knocking,” she adds.

According to the public, this sounds extraordinarily Orwellian.

Look (*Language warning):

However, some have defended the policy by noting that it’s designed specifically for incoming travelers to quarantine at home rather than a hotel.

Look:

But this argument doesn’t seem very compelling to critics.

Look:

Regarding the claim that this is part of “a bigger agenda,” Australia does have a history of imposing totalitarian-esque policies on its citizens.

Amid the ongoing pandemic, Australia has closed off all international travel, suspended parliament, deployed the military to enforce lockdowns, told locals to avoid all human contact, banned protests and granted law enforcement agencies virtually unlimited surveillance powers.

It’s “literal evil dystopia nightmare fuel,” some say, and judging from the latest developments, it’s only getting worse …

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Vivek Saxena
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