The Great Firewall of Australia - PSA
So Stephen Conroy has decided - pretty much all on his own - that he is going to go ahead with the ISP level Internet filter.
For those of you that don't know, this is where they will implement a filter for the WHOLE of Australia. It is more restrictive than just about any other system of web censorship in the world. The guise under which they're doing this is "child protection" - to stop child porn being found on the net. This is not the case though, because child porn is not found on websites, it is traded through p2p networks - which will not be filtered. The filter doesn't work - it cuts out a hell of a lot of sites it should not; it slows down internet speed significantly; it will destroy smaller ISPs who simply won't be able to afford implementation and maintenance; it will cover more than just child porn - including things that may be "morally" offensive; it filters some things by word use; there will be no access to the 'blacklist' of sites the government will block; real child porn will go on in the background while people believe it's being monitored; there is no way to opt out.
Everyone - media outlets, internet providers, government hired experts, the IT industry, Child advocacy groups and humanitarian groups, thinks that it is a VERY BAD IDEA. The government's own report said that it would not work, would be costly and was pretty much a joke.
Here's a link to when I posted about the issue in December of last year.
And here are some links to important things:
Internet filter - the facts (pdf)
http://www.censordyne.com.au/
http://nocleanfeed.com/
http://www.efa.org.au/
http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/
Any google news search on australian internet filtering will bring up loads of results too.
Supposedly, we live in a democracy in Australia. That this can go ahead without question (which has not been allowed) and against the wishes of the population (have a look at ANY poll on whether people think this is a good thing) is encouraging the destruction of free speech and so anti-democratic it makes my head spin.
Get Up! are running various campaigns (including the censordyne one up above) and have a very handy way of making your voice known. Go here and you can email/fax Senator Conroy and tell him your thoughts. It only takes a second and we need every voice we can get. Alternatively, sign the petition.
Please help spread the word.
For those of you that don't know, this is where they will implement a filter for the WHOLE of Australia. It is more restrictive than just about any other system of web censorship in the world. The guise under which they're doing this is "child protection" - to stop child porn being found on the net. This is not the case though, because child porn is not found on websites, it is traded through p2p networks - which will not be filtered. The filter doesn't work - it cuts out a hell of a lot of sites it should not; it slows down internet speed significantly; it will destroy smaller ISPs who simply won't be able to afford implementation and maintenance; it will cover more than just child porn - including things that may be "morally" offensive; it filters some things by word use; there will be no access to the 'blacklist' of sites the government will block; real child porn will go on in the background while people believe it's being monitored; there is no way to opt out.
Everyone - media outlets, internet providers, government hired experts, the IT industry, Child advocacy groups and humanitarian groups, thinks that it is a VERY BAD IDEA. The government's own report said that it would not work, would be costly and was pretty much a joke.
Here's a link to when I posted about the issue in December of last year.
And here are some links to important things:
Internet filter - the facts (pdf)
http://www.censordyne.com.au/
http://nocleanfeed.com/
http://www.efa.org.au/
http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/
Any google news search on australian internet filtering will bring up loads of results too.
Supposedly, we live in a democracy in Australia. That this can go ahead without question (which has not been allowed) and against the wishes of the population (have a look at ANY poll on whether people think this is a good thing) is encouraging the destruction of free speech and so anti-democratic it makes my head spin.
Get Up! are running various campaigns (including the censordyne one up above) and have a very handy way of making your voice known. Go here and you can email/fax Senator Conroy and tell him your thoughts. It only takes a second and we need every voice we can get. Alternatively, sign the petition.
Please help spread the word.