Australia is condemned as a ‘police state’ after Americans notice unusual detail at Taylor Swift’s sold-out concert in Sydney

Australia has been condemned as a ‘police state’ and an ‘Orwellian dystopia’ after fans noticed a strange sign at Taylor Swift’s Sydney concert on Sunday night.

In posts shared to X, Swifties, most of them from the United States, condemned a placard that read ‘report antisocial behaviour’ posted at Accor stadium, where the American pop superstar is performing a total of four concerts.

Signs encouraging people to ‘report antisocial behaviour’ are often seen in stadiums at large sporting and music events in Australia.

A clip of Taylor performing on stage with the notice in the background prompted outrage on the social media site this weekend.

‘Australia is a police state,’ wrote an American X user, alongside the original video and a screenshot in which the offending sign was circled.

I saw that, made my hairs stand up,’ replied one more, while another chimed in, ‘They gave up their guns and are now paying for it.’

‘Oh my God! That’s scary as hell. I’ve never seen anything more terrifying if that’s not just a meme,’ another said.

‘Every science fiction dystopian power riddled Nazi oppressive outcome all in one billboard message. My God that’s the sign of end times,’ they continued.

‘I always wanted to visit Australia, I’m afraid to now!’ someone else wrote with one more adding, ‘It’s like we’re living in a Orwellian dystopia’.

‘Antisocial behavior sounds super vague… Just about anything can be interpreted as that. You know you live in a police state if the state encourages citizens to snitch on each other on basic things like this,’ someone else wrote.

‘They are telling their citizens to snitch at each other. It reminds me of my old country under communism,’ one more said.

Taylor performed the third of her four Sydney concerts at Accor stadium on Sunday night, after successful gigs on Friday and Saturday.

Her sold-out shows have attracted 80,000 fans per night in addition to A-list guests which have included Rita Ora, Katy Perry, Rebel Wilson and Toni Colette.