Click Here

Internet Filtering Continues to be Hot Topic in Australia

Mar 31 2009 - 2:22pm
Internet Censorship

The coverage related to Internet filtering in Australia continues to be a hot topic.  A report aired just the other night with some 377 plus people commenting on what was transpiring.   As Gambling911.com has been reporting, the Australian government, led by Communications Director Stephen Conroy, has been working to filter some 2000 plus websites they claim were "indecent" but as it turns out, a number of those sites were related to online poker, religion and politics.

One individual wrote:

"The fact that the black list already contains politically controversial sites -of religions with which the government does not agree- should be taken as a sign of things to come. That information on euthanasia has been blocked is fairly hypocritical. It was legal in the Northern Territory under 15 years ago. The filter only covers http traffic - not peer to peer traffic. Anyone hosting illegal content over http is advertising their location. Surely distributors of illegal content would use P2P."

Another had this to say:

"Both during his appearance on Insight and Q&A last week, Conroy described it as a "Genuine conundrum" that blacklists have to be secret in order to work - therefore disenabling legitimate sites from knowing and protesting their blacklisting. I don't really see how it is a "Conundrum". If the sites are blocked, then supposedly people won't be able to access them ANYWAY. So what's wrong with transparency? And those who really want to view illegal sites will already know of them and can bypass."

Our man on the street, Greg Tingle, had this to say:

"I'm an adult and if I wish to watch adult porno that should be my business only. If I want to visit a poker or online casino website to place a bet, so be it. If I want to link to Betfair, I should have every right to. Here's a movie to watch, John Carpenter's 'They Live'. Part science fiction thriller and part black comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of subliminal media advertising and the control of economic opportunity. Rudd, any bells ringing here. Liberal, you have found your next election winner I believe. The way this is going Australia is heading for a riot which will make Cronulla, Maroubra, Thailand, China and France look like child's play. Rudd and Conroy, it's happening on your watch. Is the Australian government happy with themselves now. I would suggest that some Australian politicians are going to do well to get bodyguards, if they don't have them already, such is the dislike of some of their jackass policy, and some of them are the clowns that signed off some of this garbage."

This is a hot topic that won't be going away any time soon.

Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com         

Submitted by Alistair Prescott on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 14:18
Tags: 

Comments

ISP filtering fiasco

Sun, 04/05/2009 - 21:28 — Guest
Conroy is a Senator and *Minister* for Communications (&c), not just a lowly department "Director". The policy is a total crock, driven by a tiny but influential fanatical minority. http://au.christiantoday.com/article/acl-confirms-porn-filter-stance/5886.htm But with due respect to Greg Tingle, we shouldn't get overcooked here. This is an important issue, but not one that will bring down the government or even have much importance at the next election. Nobody is going to be rioting in the streets or taking pot-shots at politicians. What is actually going on here is that a Senator Fielding from the 'Family First' party holds the balance of power in the Senate, and he loves the idea of ISP filtering. He and his 2% think you can make a brick fly if you wish hard enough, and the government has to humour him to get anything into law. The 'fundies' aren't going to take 'no' for an answer when the trial fails, so we will get some sort of interim half-baked arrangement that will satisfy these Luddites, but not have any obvious effect on Web browsing. This will work because the "problem" of kids *accidentally* browsing p0rn sites is almost entirely imaginary anyway. Given that they want the Web filtered to G-rating suitable for small children, it's currently hard to see what compromise, workable or unworkable, can be achieved. -Rolls (in Oz)