Big Bro tells you where you can't surf...

The Great Firewall of Australia

The freshly elected Australian government of Rudd in 2008 promised to improve the Internet in Australia and has put 44 million dollars aside to create better broadband for all. Broadband minister Stephen Conroy now has reserved 43 million dollars to make Internet safer for Australia’s children. A mandatory filter, to be installed by all Internet service providers, would block websites that are flagged as “inappropriate”. The senator wants to refuse Australians Internet access to child pornography, sexual violence and other content that has been refused classification (RC). Nobody in their right mind would approve of the first two, and since they are illegal anyway they should be taken off the net, no problem. But a lot of things are illegal in Australia that are legal in other countries, like euthanasia and cannabis. Websites with info on these topics or where they are simply being discussed will become inaccessible and will take Australia back to the dark ages and it will the laughing stock of other democracies.

The trickiest bit is the Refused Classification list. According to the minister this list would include bestiality, child sex abuse, depictions of drug use and sexual violence as well as content identified by an unspecified “public complaints mechanism”. And that means that anybody (e.g. Family First, gay haters) who complains about the content of a certain website can get it put on the list of forbidden sites… So far about 1300 sites are on that list, of a total of a zillion websites worldwide and more added every minute. Good job Conroy!

The next step towards the Ozzie Firewall will be the introduction of legislative amendments to the Broadcasting Service Act during the autumn 2010 parliamentary sittings, followed by a twelve month process of implementation…

A total waste of tax payers money: the filters are inaccurate, slow down the speed, it’s easy to work around them but most importantly: freedom of speech and freedom to get information are in terrible danger. So write to your MP!

More info: www.efa.org.au