Joe Valentine
November 13th, 2008, 06:09 PM
Australia is set to implement Chinese-style internet censorship, state-wide. Every web site visited from within the country will soon have to pass through a government filter first, before being viewable.
The way snuck this in was really clever. They claimed it was needed to stop chidl pornography (because who isn't against that, right?) to garner public support for the system, however under the law they will also be able to ban anything they deem inappropriate, including political and religious web sites. It could include this one, for all we know.
My guess is they'll start by just banning the pron, to get everyone to have a positive view of the whole thing, and dupe the Christians into supporting it, then they'll gradually phase in the political censorship as well.
Australian web filter to block 10,000 internet sites
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
Australian Herald Sun (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24645676-661,00.html)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
AUSTRALIA’S mandatory net filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified “unwanted content”.
Some 1300 websites have already been identified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Communications Minister Senator Conroy revealed details of the Rudd Government’s proposed web filter as he called for expressions of interest from internet service providers (ISPs) for a live trial of the technology, the Courier-Mail reports.
ISPs will test ways to filter the web using volunteer subscribers. The trial will start before Christmas and is expected to last six weeks.
“The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content,” Senator Conroy told Parliament today.
“While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list - as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 - so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined.”
Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Colin Jacobs said his civil liberties group was concerned at what would be deemed “unwanted content”.
“Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list.
Sad thing is, the Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed this, they were totally duped by the porn argument and didn't think to look ahead to the future implications this might have. I really hope Christians in the US aren't dumb enough to fall for the same thing...
The way snuck this in was really clever. They claimed it was needed to stop chidl pornography (because who isn't against that, right?) to garner public support for the system, however under the law they will also be able to ban anything they deem inappropriate, including political and religious web sites. It could include this one, for all we know.
My guess is they'll start by just banning the pron, to get everyone to have a positive view of the whole thing, and dupe the Christians into supporting it, then they'll gradually phase in the political censorship as well.
Australian web filter to block 10,000 internet sites
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
Australian Herald Sun (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24645676-661,00.html)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
AUSTRALIA’S mandatory net filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified “unwanted content”.
Some 1300 websites have already been identified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Communications Minister Senator Conroy revealed details of the Rudd Government’s proposed web filter as he called for expressions of interest from internet service providers (ISPs) for a live trial of the technology, the Courier-Mail reports.
ISPs will test ways to filter the web using volunteer subscribers. The trial will start before Christmas and is expected to last six weeks.
“The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content,” Senator Conroy told Parliament today.
“While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list - as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 - so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined.”
Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Colin Jacobs said his civil liberties group was concerned at what would be deemed “unwanted content”.
“Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list.
Sad thing is, the Australian Christian Lobby has welcomed this, they were totally duped by the porn argument and didn't think to look ahead to the future implications this might have. I really hope Christians in the US aren't dumb enough to fall for the same thing...