Behind the Australian government’s next major push to suppress online speech

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton has won a defamation lawsuit he filed against a Twitter user for a post referring to him as "a rape apologist," and won $25,000 in damages.

The tweet was posted in February by refugee advocate Shane Bazzi, who was reacting to Dutton saying that women asylum seekers were using claims they had been raped as an excuse to enter Australia.

Bazzi's tweet also contained a link to an article reporting about Dutton's comments. This government official, who was at the time serving as interior minister, reacted to the tweet by saying it deeply offended him, denying the allegation that he was in fact a rape apologist.

On the same day Bazzi posted his tweet, Dutton made another controversial remark, reacting to a government staffer's accusations of being subjected to sexual assault in the Australian Parliament as, "she said, he said."

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