STOP Internet censorship in Australia

[moonvoice]

I am generally against banning things in the media, but one thing I would like to see banned is the Labor government's 'Clean Feed' ISP (and Stephen Conroy, if possible!), designed to slow down the internet throughout Australia due to an outdated and outmoded concept of 'censorship.'

This Clean Feed, which is planned to be implemented throughout Australia, will cost at the very least, millions of taxpayers money (which includes, fellow Australians, YOUR money), in order to 'block' what the government feels (not you) are unsavoury websites. In the Clean Feed fantasy land, these unsavoury websites will stop pedophiles from contacting each other. In reality land, everything that the government doesn't want you to access will be blocked. This includes LEGAL content. If you are an Australian, or living in Australia, this will affect you unless you speak up and do something about it. and even if you don't live in Australia this will affect you because you'll suddenly have millions of grumpy Australians complaining about their slow, sheepified Internet connections even more than they do now....

Two points remain true:

1. The Clean Feed ISP can be routed around in a few hours, meaning that it's not going to stop any Internet criminal activity in Australia. Believe me, I will be routing around it, and so should any other intelligent Australian who believes in freedom of information - especially that which is legal!

2. It will slow down everyone's Internet throughout Australia, and cost YOU money; in a nation where we have some of the most backwards internet speeds, telecommunications technology and policies in the Western world.

The Clean Feed concept has been virtually condemned by every intelligent, educated person out there. The public, other ISPs, individual State governments, media and censorship folk, and of course lowly media analysts like myself.


1. It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you do, how old you are, what little niche in Australia you are, filtering will be mandatory.

2. The Clean Feed will censor material that is 'harmful and inappropriate' for children - even though the majority of people who access the Internet in Australia are adults.

3. Australia, as you may or may not know, likes banning a lot of things that don't necessarily need to be banned. Did you know that films like Salo and Ken Park are still banned in Australia (the former of which they banned, un-banned and then re-banned)? Video games like Grand Theft Auto? Imagine what will happen to your ability to access online multimedia and websites once the Clean Feed is fully implemented? That's right, you will be treated like an infant by your own government.

4. The filters that the government will use, will slow down your internet by an average of 30%, may I remind you that your tax dollars will PAY for this privilege.

5. The filter will target LEGAL MATERIAL as well as illegal material.

6. $44 million dollars of your money down the drain folks, wave it goodbye.

7. Technically, the 'child' filter will be opt-out (NOT opt-in), but there will be a second filter (which is also capable of targeting legal material) which you may not opt-out of. It is, in other words, mandatory.

A poll of 17,881 users showed that only 2.9% of Australians surveyed support the filter, 21% disagree with the filter, and 50.5% strongly disagree. The public DO NOT WANT this filter. There are far more effective ways to monitor child pornography on the internet, and sinking $44 million into the police and detective cyber and child pornography squads that deal specifically with this issue is one of them.

This is outrageous, what can I do?

Actually you can do rather a lot, even if you don't live in Australia.

Sending a letter or email is best, but even voting on petitions, or generally letting people know how disgusted you are with this feed and spreading the word helps.








Information sourced primarily from: http://nocleanfeed.com/
under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence.

ETA: Just to prove that the Clean Feed is being used for the 'good of all,' the Wikileaks ACMA black-list of sites so far also includes sites that support abortion, euthanasia, a photo of a dentist (which has apparently since been cleaned up) among other things. Sound like a policy that's worth paying millions for?

Comments

[starla80.livejournal.com]

I am so against this. Thanks for posting about it. Also the new plan to outlaw just being a member of a bikie gang - now it's bikies, but who's next? Communists? Freedom of association anyone?!

[cariadwen.livejournal.com]

Stats from Steven Fry's programe QI (Quite Interesting) says that only 1% of the web contains pornography, while 89% of it contains spam. Now I don't know if these figures are correct, but it does seem as if your government has got it all out of proportion.

[cariadwen.livejournal.com]

Ps that's 1% of all porn not just child related. My daughter had a parental control on hers, it stopped her children from researching ordinary things because it mistranlated the subjects. It was impossible for them to google 'Breast Cancer' because the censor saw breast as a potential porn site. And I only have to point to Magicka which doesn't allow many English place names like Essex, Sussex, or words like 'arse' because of the primitiveness of its censorship rules.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Now I don't know if these figures are correct, but it does seem as if your government has got it all out of proportion.

I think it's fair to say that our government has NO IDEA what the Internet actually is about.

Oo, I know that's harsh, but seriously - did they not consult with media analysts and leading media personnel in Australia before doing this? No, of course they didn't.

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Well, that's disturbing. Can't stand censorship, especially when the excuse is to keep "inappropriate content" from children (hey, you have the children its your job to monitor them, I don't have to give up everything I find entertaining because you can't be bothered (I don't know if that's the case here, but a lot of pro censorship people do seem to be parents that think we all need to be punished so the government can do their job for them).

What are the chances this will be implemented? Is Australia quite that bad? Well, if you banned Grand Theft Auto, do I even need to ask?

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Of course I should add, this won't do dick about child pornography. People like that will find a way around any blocks you put in place to do whatever they want to do. And punishing everyone on account of people like them makes no sense anyway

[kaikea.livejournal.com]

This so much.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

The likelihood that this will go through, without significant protest from the public (and even with significant process) is actually - shockingly - quite high. The fact that an allocated amount has already been set aside in the Federal Budget, and trials are underway, suggests that the scheme is being implemented.

For months and months, the government has also attempted to silence critics of the Clean Feed, and have kept the implementation of this under lock and key as much as possible (probably knowing in advance that most Australians would protest).

[leahcim.livejournal.com]

The leak of what's purported to be the ACMA ban list (thankyou wikileaks!) also points out that the list also contains sites that aren't illegal (eg. euthanasia) or haven't been illegal for years (eg. a dentist's website got hacked, and had since changed hosting providers). A few wikipedia pages were also blacklisted (ohnoes, artistic nudity!).

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Apparently Wikileaks itself also made the ACMA blacklist (retardomac!), so much for 'freedom of information.'

It's ridiculous. A website that supported abortion was also blacklisted.

[kaikea.livejournal.com]

1984

[kaikea.livejournal.com]

dude, I am dead tired since I went to bed at 6AM the day before and am away all late again and shit today, so can you email me the raw of this (with the html code or whatever) so I dont have to reformat it

askljd;lkfeiuew this is crazy

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I'd love to, is your email address the livejournal one? Or something different? :D

[kaikea.livejournal.com]

LJ one redirects to mine :)

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

I'm planning a rant like this in my own journal. I think the CleanFeed filter is an appalling idea and intend to take action against it.

[shistavanenjedi.livejournal.com]

It makes me wonder if child pornography is not the issue here, but more like wanting to control what information the government sees as "unsavoury" from you. It wouldn't surprise me if pagan sites (if there's a huge Christain lobby), animal welfare and environmentalism sites would be blocked as well - in short, everything that makes a person actually think for themselves would be blocked. All governments want to control what people do, how people think and this is just one way for them to do it.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of the LJ Strikethrough debacle.

But much, MUCH worse.