Australia, Once Again, Seeks To Censor The Internet
from the downunder-fail dept
For about a decade now, we've been talking about attempt after attempt after attempt after attempt by the Australian government to censor the internet.It looks like they're at it again. After much pressure from the Australian government, the country's two largest ISPs, Telstra and Optus (along with two smaller ISPs, itExtreme and Webshield) have agreed to start censoring the internet, blocking a secret list of websites from view. The government will give them the list, and they'll block. There's no review or accountability, and the government can just put webpages they don't like on the list... and too bad:
This has all been discussed many times before, and yet the Australian government just can't resist. No matter how many times it's explained to them the clear unintended consequences of blind censorship, and the fact that it won't do any good, they just keep pushing forward with the same plan.The problem with such a plan is multi-layered: First, there is no transparency in the selection of URLs to be blacklisted, and no accountability from the regulatory bodies creating the blacklists. The “reputable international organizations” providing child abuse URLs have not been named, but may include the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based organization that in 2008 advised UK ISPs to block a Wikipedia page containing an album cover from the 1970s that they deemed might be illegal.
The ACMA itself has run into problems with its blacklist as well. After Wikileaks published the regulator’s blacklist in 2009, it was discovered that the list contained the website of a Queensland-based dentist, as well as numerous other sites unrelated to child sexual abuse or illegal pornography.
Second, filtering does little to curb the trade of child pornography, much of which is traded across peer to peer networks and VPNs. Filtering it from the world wide web may simply push it further underground.
Third, there appears to be no appeals process in the Australian ISPs’ scheme, thereby making it difficult for sites erroneously caught up in the filter to challenge the block.
Lastly, the introduction of a filter sets precedent for the ISPs to filter more sites in the future at the behest of the ACMA. If the ACMA were to make the decision that sites deemed "indecent" or politically controversial--for example--should be off-limits, would the ISPs comply?
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Filed Under: australia, censorship, filters
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they can't even get rid of rabbits
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Re: they can't even get rid of rabbits
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http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Telstra-seals-NBN-deal-pd20110623-J3UPL?opend ocument&src=rss
Funny the press conference didnt mention anything described in the article being included in the deal ;)
Background: TELSTRA is a monopoly, previously owned by all, now by a few, they own all the telecommunication infrastructure, now we are going to buy it all back from them for 11billion over 10years.
OPTUS is the nearest competitor to testra, they get 1 billion.
The other two companies ive never heard of, probably owned by goverment stooges.
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That's how things work, right?
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> on the internet they just have to accept it and let people
> break the law.
Which law was the dentist whose site ended up on the list breaking again?
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Please don't preach to the moron
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people would rather kill themselves by repeatedly smashing their noggin on a brick wall in the vain attempt to prove themselves right than admit they were wrong in the first place.
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Thank goodness for that as well, we are at least smart enough to not have to live by two set's of 'rules' and things you are allowed to do, along with a list of things you are not. (and to have the problem where things can be on both lists !!).
No, we just have the law, just like you do, but we do not have another thing that tells us what apart from what the laws say you are allowed to do.
"I am allowed to carry a gun, but I am not allowed to kill people with it!!!!, what the hell".. great system.
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/sarcasm
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/hackers-put-telstra-in-filter-bind/stor y-e6frgakx-1226081618113
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The politicians pushing it had better look to their careers when that happens.
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Re: Look To Their Careers
Censorship is a technique which is too dangerous to allow Australian politicians to get hold of. A rather high proportion of the Australian electorate agree.
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If so, would they not be guilty of viewing such material ?
But once again, at least here in Austalia we can simply vote out an unpopular government and we are not bound by a subset of rules that even the Governement is not rightly able to modify.
Whereas your government is "it's in the constitution that we can do this so bad luck", in Aussie the Gov cannot do that, and if they want to stay in power they have to bend to the majority of the people wishes.
There will be a big backlash to this, and there will be no "patriot act" or anything that will stop the people making their feelings known, especially at the next elections, which are compulsory here in Australia.
So everyone has their say..
and if they really screw up we can have an vote of 'no confidence' in parliment, and call a general election and let the people decide.
So I still believe our system is far superior to many many other countries, and especially the US.
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that sucks.
This type of blacklist is rife for abuse by governments, and as an optus ISP user, I will not have to consider alternatives.
Even though I am quite sure none of the blacklisted sites will affect me at all.
But to have web site blacklisted because they have "teen" in their URL is just plain wrong.
www.canteen.com.au was one I believe was on the list, which is a web site dedicated to help children with cancer.
but it was on the blacklist
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Australian censorship
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darryl, you twat
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And if people think that a change in govt back to the libs will actually change anything, maybe you're just not as cynical as me. Or do you think the democrats will make a showing this time? or worse... the greens...
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you don't have to be cynical to know that, you just need to look at history, the 2 major parties always fight each other out in public but get the other in power and nothing changes, are most people really that stupid that they don't see that its an illusion of choice and they're both funded by the same sources? vote independant, even if you don't agree with all the policies, at least you'll be voting for a person with a conscience, not a puppet.
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Hax
This censorship protects pedophiles and opens the door for future abuse of the blacklist system and the blocking of other things. This is just a ploy to get their foot in the door so that they can later expand the blacklist to encompass everything that they don't want the public to know about.
They should shut down illegal sites, not protect the people who use them, which is all this filter achieves...Everyone will suffer when the internet is slowed down and when they start blocking youtube and wikipedia pages and random blogs and business websites.
I'll be switching ISPs, since a boycott is the only way to get a point across.
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