@daedalus Nah, a standing ovation from the audience for you and Asher Wolf and the other #notmydebt folks who chipped away at this for years.

It's easy for the media to dismiss 'keyboard warriors' and 'clicktivism', but RoboDebt is a case study in the power of coordinated online campaigning to effect real change.

The tireless efforts of Asher Wolf and others working with the #NotMyDebt campaign were critical in pushing this issue on the mainsteam media and political agenda

#RoboDebt #AusPol
https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-robodebt-how-twitter-activists-pushed-a-government-scandal-from-hashtags-to-a-royal-commission-209131

Asher Wolf is the first person I remember, right back in 2016, who began to fight #Robodebt and they deserve far more recognition, respect and thanks.
This was also an example of Twitter at its best- supportive and in accord. So very many were active then, supporting and encouraging those with debts, suggesting ways to track down income proof, explaining clearly why averaging was illegal, many ex PS fr DSS and ATO knew and laid it out time after time.
Asher started working tirelessly w others and using #NotMyDebt to publicise how wrong this was, to gather info, help w advice, lobby politicians and social community welfare orgs to fight this cruel deliberately ignorant injustice. They never stopped for all those years.

#MSM Journalists who use Twitter to their own ends just ignored this storm of information but were on Twitter and still did not pursue it w exception of #GuardianAus.
#Labor MP's pursued individual cases in their electorates but could have made far more impact if they had pursued harder in Plt.
I am glad the RC happened, but it should never have been needed. I am glad the Commissioner was clear in her condemnation of all the senior politicians involved and hope that Campbell, Tudge and Morrison pay for their greedy disregard of law and are never mentioned in future without the term 'Robodebt Enabler' being attached to their name.

Sincere thanks and respect to Commissioner Holmes for a job well done and with meticulous care.

@Asher_Wolf, digital activist who helped expose robo-debt scandal
https://www.smh.com.au/national/who-is-the-person-behind-the-handle-asher-wolf-20230425-p5d31z.html

#Robodebt Where the heck was the media for the four years Robodebt was running riot?
In 2016 Twitter was awash in people suffering firsthand from Robodebt. The hashtag #Notmydebt was everywhere and the posts were incredible and raw
Anyone who has ever had anything to do with claiming benefits knew that income averaging was incongruent with the way income was being reported
So where were all the journalists?
Why did it take so long for them to realise the government had buggered up? In fact, did they ever realise it?
If the journalists had got off their arses and not be so disparaging about citizen reporting then Robodebt migth have been ended years earlier and suicides prevented
Sure, blame politicians, blame public servants, but the media that are currently selling advertising as they report on Robodebt are at least equally to blame

> The program continued for years, despite scathing government hearings and reports. During this time, the volunteer-led campaign #NotMyDebt elevated victims' stories, activists organized a sit-in at a lawmaker's office, and a prominent legal scholar who was pushed out of their longstanding post in #Australia's appeals tribunal for #WelfarePayments lambasted the program. Legal aid groups launched successful challenges, and an ongoing class action lawsuit seeking damages was struck up in 2019.

@jkirk @asherwolf
Glad this highlights and acknowledges all that Asher Wolf did to bring #notmydebt and #Robodebt to light through Twitter. She was an outstanding advocate and first to initiate attention that led to eventual Royal Commission.

You find out who ur friends are when shit gets real or when money is involved #NotMyDebt

#notmydebt

RT @MIT_CSAIL@twitter.com

An IBM slide from 1979.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/MIT_CSAIL/status/1604884273789603842

This makes my blood boil & I want those responsible to pay dearly, for all of us to know who they were & for their guilt to haunt them.

So many competent, experienced frontline staff, victim supporters like Asher Wolf, past PS who knew exactly how the system was meant to work w error messages & human oversight were shouting out from the beginning of #NotMyDebt that #Robodebt was wrong.

But an arrogant, ignorant department head who wanted to please an arrogant, ignorant Morrison ignored all the warnings & people already suffering hardship were punished even harder & some died as a result.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/03/you-are-being-misled-the-centrelink-worker-who-tried-to-stop-robodebt-as-it-started?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

'Closer to home, activists including Lyndsey Jackson and Asher Wolf used #NotMyDebt and #Robodebt to collect and share experiences related to the Australian government’s harmful automated debt program. This vital work developed supportive communities for those suffering harm caused by Robodebt, giving them a voice at a time when the government was all too happy to ignore them. '

One example of much good done through Twitter, let us give the credit it is due.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/22/as-twitter-burns-we-must-not-forget-it-is-people-that-create-social-movements-not-apps?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@Beardo_NW Having been involved in the many years of campaigning in Australia around #NotMyDebt (robobebt will probably need a google for foreigners), my perspective is that Zeynep Tufekci’s distinction in Twitter and Tear Gas between momentum and capacity building is probably relevant here?

i think this is the first I've seen labor even acknowledging activism outside of the labor party
I don't remember this in #NotMyDebt #robodebt
happy to be corrected, it's been a long time.

RT @Gen4Groom@twitter.com

@AmandaRishworth@twitter.com @thesayno7@twitter.com 🙂

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/Gen4Groom/status/1532578730962751488

Yet another confirmation that #Robodebt was illegal. The Government must urgently pay back the thousands of false debts it made people pay.
#NotMyDebt #auspol
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6617248/government-told-robodebt-not-lawful-internal-emails-show/?cs=14350

#socialpoliticy #algorithms #poverty #tech

Canberra:
Stop 👏 wasting 👏 our 👏 resources

RT @not_my_debt@twitter.com

DHS's answers to the senate today show robodebt is running at a loss.

DHS has raised 410k robodebts at an average of $1,028. That's $421m robodebt raised (not recovered).

40,000+ have been written off/wiped entirely, $50m+

Yet they've spent $375m administering it

#notmydebt

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/not_my_debt/status/1094887508519735298

Like - thanks to the person who asked for the @DnBUS@twitter.com contract for #NotMyDebt recovery - it's now publicly available here. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/5195/response/14208/attach/5/LEX30798%20Document.pdf
If only it had been made downloadable on the damn website like the FOI act states and i asked that'd be nice!!!
ping @not_my_debt@twitter.com

holy mackerel

RT @not_my_debt@twitter.com

$14,000 robodebt

"They demanded immediate payment without any kind of explanation nor provided any kind of break down of how he debit occurred"

"This happened 4 months after i was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy"

#notmydebt

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/not_my_debt/status/1079959110186020864