More Internet Woes for Australia

[The_root_of_all_evil]

More Internet Woes for Australia

This month, the Australian government is rolling out firewalls to filter child-unfriendly sites.

Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy,(ABCDE?) Steven Conroy has a four year plan to spend $126m AUS to spearhead the "cyber-safety" initiative. The plan has already come under sharp opposition by groups including Simon Morton, Radio New Zealand's Technology Commentator.

"This would see the government establishing a blacklist of websites it deems harmful and ISPs providing a clean feed of the internet," he said.

Unsurprisingly, there are some that feel it doesn't hit hard enough. Whilst Britain and Canada have similar systems, none are Government mandated; and we all know how the Australian government feels about 18+ games.

The filter is also likely to put a drain on ISP speed. Similar studies have shown a drop of up to 86% in connectivity.

Senator Conroy already has 1,300 sites that he wants blacklisted (that few?), but 10,000 more are apparently on the "to do" list.

Source : BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7760996.stm] via Silent D.

Permalink

 

[SinisterDeath]

Wait... is this 'everyones' interweb, or just public wi-fi?
Cause if its public, meh whatever. But if it affected everyone thats just wrong on every level! Now how will our fellow aussies get porn? From those sheep lovin new zealander's?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It's everyone. They tried out personal choice but this one is mandatory.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Makes me glad I don't live in Australia. Is it going to be mandatory, or do individuals sign up for the filter? If it's the latter, I can see that it might be okay (the only criticism I can make is "slippery slope"), but if it's the former, I may help you guys out.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Man, this is censorship gone way too far. I can somewhat understand video games. Atkinson is naive, still seeing games as for children. But how in the bloody hell can you condone banning a website on a national level?!

 

[Aardvark]

The tests they're doing are voluntary. Most ISPs are only going through with them so they can prove what a stupid idea it is and so they can document every false positive and every customer complaint and personally slap this guy in the face with them. The actual plan to roll the thing out and make it mandatory is opposed by the Opposition and the Greens, so the government doesn't have the numbers to get it through the Senate.

Our last three telecommunications ministers have been just wonderful. Richard Alston, who oversaw the sell-off of Telstra, along with all the tax-payer funded copper, then was shocked and horrified to hear that the newly privatised entity would then use its monopoly to gouge the competition. He was also the guy who sat back and watched broadband get castrated in this country. Then there was Helen Coonan. I honestly don't think she'd ever used a computer in her life, let alone the internet. Then we go to all the trouble of voting out the previous pack of bush-loving warmongers and we get this cretin, who's immediately jumped on the win-over-the-bad-parents-and-religious-loonies bandwagon and is getting a bollocking from the public over it.

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

I'm assuming that's Conroy in the picture?(I.E. I don't know shit about Australia)

. . .

. . .


He sounds like a douche.

 

[Hevoo]

Thank God I live in America, and Thank my founding fathers for the First Amendment.

 

[Limos]

Thank God I live in America, and Thank my founding fathers for the First Amendment.

Too bad the conservatives only believe in First Amendment rights when it applies to them. Freedom of speech, As long as it's good Christian speech. Preferable if it's denouncing Homosexuals, condemning liberals, or calling Obama a Muslim.

Urging people to murder Homosexuals? Totally fine.
Denouncing Islam as being the cause of terrorism? Sure why not.
Constantly blaming Darwin and Evolution for everything bad that has ever happened? Go for it.
Seperation of Church and state? HATE SPEECH!! CHRISTIAN NATION!! BAAAAAAAAAW!!

 

[Cousin_IT]

Im guessing Newgrounds & 4chan are gonna be on his list? theyve been on Fox news after all so being an Australian government minister he's bound to jump all over that.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

It's official Australia is lead by Jack Thompson.

 

[TomNook]

Next week, Australian Government makes having sex illegal.

 

[TomNook]

Thank God I live in America, and Thank my founding fathers for the First Amendment.

Too bad the conservatives only believe in First Amendment rights when it applies to them. Freedom of speech, As long as it's good Christian speech. Preferable if it's denouncing Homosexuals, condemning liberals, or calling Obama a Muslim.

Urging people to murder Homosexuals? Totally fine.
Denouncing Islam as being the cause of terrorism? Sure why not.
Constantly blaming Darwin and Evolution for everything bad that has ever happened? Go for it.
Seperation of Church and state? HATE SPEECH!! CHRISTIAN NATION!! BAAAAAAAAAW!!

Liberals are no better with there politically correct bullshit.

 

[TheGhostOfSin]

Man, this is censorship gone way too far. I can somewhat understand video games. Atkinson is naive, still seeing games as for children. But how in the bloody hell can you condone banning a website on a national level?!

<url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China>*Clears throat loudly*

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Australia? On behalf of your neighbour, the country known as New Zealand, I present to you our thoughts on the matter.

We offer our deepest condolences towards you and your silly government, and hope it get's well soon.

 

[rougeknife]

Atricle has holes in it and is missing a fair bit of good information relevant to the story.

I'd write a huge essay, but this site gives you a good idea on what we?re up against:
http://nocleanfeed.com/learn.html


This internet censorship plan has been slammed by everyone from ISP bosses [http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21799/127/], political activists [http://www.theage.com.au/news/home/technology/activists-target-net-censorship-plans/2008/11/27/1227491695981.html] to even child welfare groups. [http://www.theage.com.au/news/home/technology/childrens-welfare-groups-slam-net-filters/2008/11/28/1227491813497.html] The government is primarily claiming that they are trying to prevent the despicable practice of child pornography (which the plan will not prevent and be lucky to even dent anyway), however, when you consider that Senator Conory?s Office tried to silence Mark Netwon [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/author.asp?id=5700] after he released This article [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8098&page=0] attacking and revealing the plan for the pointless shame it is, this is no more than the government trying to extend its control over what information is available to Australians. Infact, the government has been attempting to silence critics of the plan for a while now [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081024-aussie-govt-dont-criticize-our-terrible-net-filters.html] Its censorship and control, pure and simple, and it makes me sick to my gut that Australia may be joining the ranks of China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea.

Feel free to add this information to the article, though please quote your sources

 

[Aardvark]

Gotta be careful mentioning Liberals when talking about Australian politics. The Liberal party here is the conservative nazi party, currently in opposition with their buddies, the National party, or country hicks party. Together, they form the Coalition. The current government is Labor, the communist party. The closest thing to a third party here are the Greens, the unwashed hippy party. At the moment, the Greens aren't quite Labor's National party, still retaining independence enough to oppose retarded ideas such as this, but the last time we had a third (Well, technically fourth) party who imposed sanity, they sold out and are now dead in the water.

When provoked, we're not very forgiving.

 

[Rankao]

I know Australia is likely one of the most isolated countries on earth but apparently your government thinks you have to many ways to get new ideas.

 

[Hevoo]

Thank God I live in America, and Thank my founding fathers for the First Amendment.

Too bad the conservatives only believe in First Amendment rights when it applies to them. Freedom of speech, As long as it's good Christian speech. Preferable if it's denouncing Homosexuals, condemning liberals, or calling Obama a Muslim.

Urging people to murder Homosexuals? Totally fine.
Denouncing Islam as being the cause of terrorism? Sure why not.

Constantly blaming Darwin and Evolution for everything bad that has ever happened? Go for it.
Seperation of Church and state? HATE SPEECH!! CHRISTIAN NATION!! BAAAAAAAAAW!!

1. Urging to kill Gays? Who? Only nut cases say that, and most people are not nut cases.
2. Denouncing Islam? Hmmmmm, I will concede to this point. But for the most part people dont Denounce this. But they dont do it directly, Its more subconsciously then anything.
3. Blaming Darwin and Evolution? No, they have a belief that god created the earth, granted what they believe is wrong. THey can still believe it.

You are retarded, stop watching Msnbc, and the ZEITGEIST for 5 seconds.

People can say what they want, and for the people who believe the above they are on the fringe of society. You need to chill the out, and thank whomever, that you live where you live.

Everything you named is in the minority, of our society no nation is perfect or people, you always will have nut cases. If people were perfect we would not need governments.

In short your an Idiot.