Articles
Be careful about online news items that are way off the mark about your jurisdiction’s road rules
Fake AI-generated Australian road rules taking over Google | Drive.com.au
Aussies shocked over new ‘fake, AI’ road rule | News.com.au
From the horse’s mouth
Fiona Phillips MP
Federal Electorate: Gilmore (NSW – Shoalhaven and Batemans Bay area)
Political Party: Australian Labor Party
Facebook post on this topic rebutting these claims
Other articles on this site about fake news and disinformation
ABC touches on fake news and disinformation in an educational video series
Questions are being raised about generative artificial intelligence
What is prebunking in the context of news accuracy?
Being cautious about fake news and misinformation in Australia
Being aware of fake news in the UK
My Comments
There has been a rash of fake news campaigns targeting Australians regarding road rules or increases in traffic fines or demerit (penalty) points that aren’t on Australia’s traffic-legislation books at all.
Examples of these include a night-time driving curfew impacting drivers over 60 years old or a requirement to have headlights on during the day. In the case of traffic fines, the increases are often way off the mark for particular offence types.
Even though Australians are being targeted with this kind of disinformation, I am writing this in a manner that can be of benefit to worldwide readers. This is because similar disinformation campaigns that target our daily lives can be targeted around the world, especially at relatively peaceful democratic countries.
This kind of content is generated by AI and is typically clickbait material used to gain interaction and increased positioning on search engines like Google or Bing. In some cases, it is also to gain appearance in news portals like Google’s own Discover news portal. But it has also caused a lot of furious debate across the Social Web.
Such Websites exist to gain advertising income but they also create fear, uncertainty and doubt about the regular laws that impact our daily lives. As Fiona Phillips (Federal MP for Gilmore) said, this is to reduce faith in democratic institutions and to sow discord in our society. It is similar to what has been happening through the COVID pandemic era where Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada were being targeted with disinformation that sowed distrust in our governments. The key issue was to target the generations who were schooled to place faith in these institutions and primarily relied on traditional print and broadcast media for their news consumption.
It is important to check credible sources whenever any changes are made to your jurisdiction’s road legislation or regulation. In most cases, this is typically a national affair but some devolved territories or federations have the devolved territory or state assume responsibility for traffic legislation and regulation. You can find out about it from your local motor-registration office who will look after your driver’s licence or car’s registration papers.
These motor-registration authorities are in the best position to confirm anything about your jurisdiction’s traffic laws. If there is pending legislation regarding the road rules, your jurisdiction’s legislature would also be in a valid position to inform you.
Any changes to the road rules will be communicated by the relevant motor-registration authorities through their own Website, through official media releases or through public-service announcements you will see delivered through regular credible advertising channels.
The established media will give a lot of editorial space to road-rule changes that will impact how you are to drive or keep your vehicle.
Let’s not forget the locally well-known and well-respected automotive advocacy groups being in a position to advocate on behalf of drivers or the motor trades regarding the impact of pending road laws.
These groups include motorists’ clubs and associations like RACV or the NRMA – the groups who provide you with roadside assistance when your car decides to break down. Or they include peak bodies and “guilds” that represent entities who manufacture, distribute, sell or repair vehicles like the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce.
In a parliamentary democracy, changes to road rules, like with other laws, go through a lot of work at the government level. This includes the government soliciting input from a wide range of advocacy groups including those representing the motor trade and motorists’ organisations, passage of legislation through the jurisdiction’s legislature, etc
The key issue is to double-check with authoritative sources when there are changes to significant laws that impact your life and such changes are communicated from sources you aren’t familiar with including word of moutn.
