Stopping Australian censorship of the net
Though this only affects Australia, I still want to highlight the issue as a global one and urge people to take action. I wrote about this in a previous post and unfortunately, nearly three years later, this beast lurches on. In a nutshell, the current coalition (led by the Labor party, the main left party here in Oz) wants to impose two layers of ISP-level net filtering. I fully oppose one and partially oppose the other. They are discussed well at the EFA and the blog Somebody Think Of The Children; I will summarize here.
If the proposal goes through, both filters will be mandatory for all Australian ISPs to establish. The first filter is optional, but by default it will be on; a consumer must ask for it to be removed. It screens out all objectionable material, in the same way the Government regulates what content can be shown on television. I don’t really mind the government requiring that ISPs offer this filter for free to those who ask for it, as long as the cost is not too high and it does not slow down the connections of those who don’t want the filtering. What I oppose is that by default it is turned on. People should not need to ask for their rights to information. To ask people to opt out of the filter creates a chilling effect, by design.
The second filter is far worse. It is mandatory and cannot be turned off. It blocks material which is illegal, and some material which is not really illegal but restricted. An opaque government process decides what fits this definition. This seems likely to include material under a copyright claim (whether valid or not), material deemed to be of aid to terrorists, and material offensive in other ways, such as suicide advocacy, strongly stated anti-abortion images, illegal pornography (such as child porn) and so on. This filter needs to scan all traffic, therefore impeding the speed of service to an unknown degree. It will not stop use of proxies or peer-to-peer traffic. Therefore, it will not stop child pornographers or terrorists from plying their odious trade.
I fully oppose this second filter. It is like giving the government the right to open all postal mail to make sure the letter does not contain anything illegal. No government can be trusted with that right. Existing laws need to be fully funded and enforced to stop what is illegal and damaging to society. Blocking it with an automatic filter is prior restraint.
All this is encountering stiff opposition, not least from ordinary Australians who have a healthy distrust of authority. I urge everyone to oppose this, whether in Oz or in their own country… because ideas like this tend to spread.
Tags: aussie-net-filter, australia, censorship, free-speech, internet, law, obscenity
