[Infowarrior] - Australia will try to censor the Internet

[Richard Forno]

Australia will try to censor the Internet
Comment Blighty to follow?
By Nick Farrell
Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 13:19

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/1566179/australia-try-censor-internet
THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT has decided that the land Down Under will  
become the only Western Democracy to attempt to censor the Internet.

Despite warnings that the government is committing political suicide  
and the technology will not work, the Rudd government is screaming for  
the same controls over its citizens as Communist China.

It is insisting that filtering a blacklist of banned sites will be  
accurate and won't slow down the Internet.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today that he will  
introduce legislation just before next year's elections to force ISPs  
to block a government blacklist of "refused classification" (RC)  
websites for all Australian Internet users.

The website blacklist is a 21st century version of book burning,  
featuring everything that good decent citizens should not like.

The Australian Government claims its list only includes things like  
child sex abuse, sexual violence and instructions on crime. However  
the list will be compiled using a public complaints mechanism,  
Government censors and URLs provided by 'international agencies'. Of  
course no one can imagine how anything could go wrong with that.

Conroy said that most good decent cobbers know there is a some  
Internet material that is not acceptable in any civilised society and  
it is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are  
protected from this material.

Of course good decent cobbers will be asking the government to tell  
them what is bad for them and this is where it will all go pear-shaped.

The Government's top-secret list of banned sites was leaked onto the  
web in March, revealing the scope of the filtering could extend  
significantly beyond child porn and other bad things.

About half of the sites on the list were not related to child porn and  
included poker sites, Youtube links, regular gay and straight porn  
sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, fringe religions, fetish  
sites, Christian sites and bizarrely a tour operator and even a  
Queensland dentist.

It is starting to look, however, like the Rudd Government's Internet  
censorship initiatives are being watched closely by other democracies.

While most governments know that they will be accused of being Big  
Brother if they bring it in they are watching to see if the Aussie  
control freaks get away with it.

Governments, whatever they may say, love the idea of control. Blighty  
has happily encouraged the installation of CCTV cameras everywhere  
despite enormous costs to the taxpayers and the fact that there is no  
evidence they reduce crime.

Conroy claimed that more than 15 western countries had encouraged or  
enforced Internet filtering, and there was no reason why Australians  
should not have similar "protection".

Countries that do filter the Internet include Communist China and  
North Korea, the Islamic theocracies of Saudi Arabia and Iran, a  
number of other less than democratic countries in the Middle East and  
a few tin-pot dictatorships here and there.

Conway is also taking a big risk of trying to get the legislation  
through before the election. No opposition party supports the plan and  
the Rudd government is not the most popular. Many expected the daft  
plan to be dropped as too risky.

The fact that it has not been dropped is worrying for everyone in the  
Western World who has a problem with being told what to do by a  
government.

What is amusing is that it will only inconvenience those who allow  
themselves to be blocked. The Chinese government has found that if  
people are determined enough any filtering of the world wide web can  
be bypassed.

Paedophiles and terrorists will be the first to get around any  
Internet filtering. So this means it will only be useful for  
controlling and monitoring the Australian public. µ