Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet

This link has been bookmarked by 18 people . It was first bookmarked on 31 Dec 2007, by JX Wang.

28 Sep 09

brianna petro
- Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet.
  
  The Labor Party’s policy was announced prior to the Australian Election in November (release here) and was justified on the basis that the previous Government’s policy of providing free copies of NetNanny to all Australian households who wanted it didn’t adequately protect children.
  
  As recently as the week prior to the election, Labor Party candidates were telling those concerned about the proposed law that the censorship wouldn’t be compulsory, and that the “clean feed” would be opt-in, not opt-out. Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it. The problem of course then becomes if you opt-out questions will be asked as to why you want out, which in itself may lead to Government monitoring.
  
  To be censored by the Australian Government is “pornography and inappropriate material.” X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of “hate” speech and R rated computer games. BitTorrent would be a possibility, even if certain downloads for personal use may be legal under Australian law, sharing those downloads would not be. How far “inappropriate material” may extend was not made clear, for example questioning Government policy where it comes to Aboriginal people could be deemed to be discrimination under Australian law and hence blocked by the censorship regime. Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing. If there is one certainty in any country that implements broadscale censorship, once they start blocking content it doesn’t stop, and certainly every do-gooder group and special interest lobbyist will be wanting the Government to add to the list.
25 Jan 08

Leslie Fishlock
13 Jan 08

edtechtalk
Australia is requiring a "clean feed" for child-accessible computers

etw60 20080113 filtering
Jennifer Maddrell
Australia is requiring a "clean feed" for child-accessible computers

etw60 20080113 filtering
03 Jan 08

Michel Bauwens
P2P-Australia Censorship P2P
Gert Gast
censorship privacy
02 Jan 08

Julia Lesage
Net nanny for everyone; online pornography and casino-like gambling is already illegal there; courtesy of a left government; opt-out provisions available

identity politics video space tools usability users Internet culturalstudies culture politicaleconomy journalism news digitalrights
Nick Cowie
censorship
Trebor Scholz
Australia censorship
01 Jan 08

paul reid
Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing. I

australia censorship internet politics privacy identity security safety
JX Wang
blah
31 Dec 07

Colin Brosnan
internet censorship australia government fascism
Gordon Herd
Australia plans to censor Net access. What next?

australia censorship internet politics surveillance privacy
Christopher Rice
internet surveillance fascism
internet netneutrality ciberderechos
Chrys R
australia internet censorship
05 Jan 89

(tags: newsarticle)

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