“Melbourne University students who participated in the sit-in did so under the expectation that under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, their peaceful protest was protected under that law.”
A state agency is investigating Australia’s University of Melbourne for possibly violating privacy laws by using surveillance technology to identify students who participated in a sit-in protest against the conflict in Gaza, according to local media.
Twenty-one students facing suspension or expulsion over the protests, “were emailed CCTV images of themselves” inside the building where the sit-in took place, reported The Age newspaper.
“Alongside the zoomed-in stills were details of the students’ use of the campus Wi-Fi network,” the report added.
BREAKING: In a clear act of political intimidation and repression, Melbourne University has issued notices of alleged misconduct against at least 19 anti-genocide pro-Palestinian students protesters! pic.twitter.com/vJoX4PVjPs
— Unimelb for Palestine (@Umelb4Palestine) June 27, 2024
This will reportedly be used as “evidence of alleged wrongdoing” when the trials into “misconduct” begin on Wednesday.
The university, bound by the Privacy and Data Protection Act, is to be investigated by the country’s Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, the paper confirmed.
‘Protected Under Law’
The National Tertiary Education Union’s university branch has called on the university to “immediately cancel these student misconduct hearings.”
Branch president David Gonzalez is quoted as having said “Melbourne University students who participated in the sit-in did so under the expectation that under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, their peaceful protest was protected under that law.”
The students are reportedly accused of breaching a “health and safety concern” with the sit-in which led to the cancellation of classes.
Hypocrisy and Deceit Down Under – Is Australia a Zionist Stronghold?
Gonzalez dismissed the allegations saying “These students should have never been tracked as they were in a safe environment, adding that the university “should do the right thing and dismiss these charges immediately.”
The paper said that in 2016, the university claimed that its tracking technology “could not be used to identify individual students.” However, academics raised concern then that “the stated purpose for collecting data could change over time.”
On its website, the university states that its policy of using the technology to collect biometric data from staff and students was “voluntary and based on your consent,” The Age reported.
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,193 Palestinians have been killed, and 87,903 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
‘Not Implausible’ – The Lancet Estimates Gaza Death Toll Could Be 186,000 or More
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
Those of us on the right side of American history aren’t worried about pro-Israel c#nts, Big Brother University, or police Nazis who are trying to erase it. bring ’em on.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free: OF ISRAEL!
if you want to defeat Zionism, stop calling it, Israel. it’s Palestine.
What “tracking technology”? Is it Australian or did they bought it from a foreign power/regime? If not Australian, then why did that foreign power/regime pushed it on Australia? To “protect” Australia or to protect their own regime, Australia be damned?