Australia Govt. proposes mandatory Internet filter

[DesDownunder]

Here we go, Australia's answer to avoiding all those Proposition initiatives.

At time of post this, there were 591 comments (a large number for us), who were not all that happy.

Rudd Government's Internet filter to block up to 10,000 'unwanted' sites

Full story here

(Careful if you go to the comments page, with 591 comments it is very sluggish.)

AUSTRALIA'S mandatory internet filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content", Communications Minister Stephen Conroy revealed in Federal Parliament.

The 10,000 blocked websites would include 1300 websites already blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Senator Conroy revealed details of the Rudd Government's proposed web filter as he called for expressions of interest from internet service providers for a live trial of the technology.

As part of the trial, ISPs will test different methods of filtering the web with subscribers who volunteer. The trial is expected to last six weeks and will start before Christmas.

"The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content," Senator Conroy told Parliament.

"While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined."

AUSTRALIA'S mandatory internet filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content", Communications Minister Stephen Conroy revealed in Federal Parliament.

The 10,000 blocked websites would include 1300 websites already blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Senator Conroy revealed details of the Rudd Government's proposed web filter as he called for expressions of interest from internet service providers for a live trial of the technology. AUSTRALIA'S mandatory internet filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content", Communications Minister Stephen Conroy revealed in Federal Parliament.

The 10,000 blocked websites would include 1300 websites already blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Senator Conroy revealed details of the Rudd Government's proposed web filter as he called for expressions of interest from internet service providers for a live trial of the technology.

As part of the trial, ISPs will test different methods of filtering the web with subscribers who volunteer. The trial is expected to last six weeks and will start before Christmas.

"The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content," Senator Conroy told Parliament.

As part of the trial, ISPs will test different methods of filtering the web with subscribers who volunteer. The trial is expected to last six weeks and will start before Christmas.

"The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content," Senator Conroy told Parliament.

ACMA's laboratory trial of web-filtering technology this year found filtering technology could slow internet access by as much as 87 per cent and by at least 2 per cent.

Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Colin Jacobs says live trials of ISP-based web filters would be rushed, as they were scheduled to occur as internet companies geared down for Christmas.

Mr Jacobs said large internet providers such as Telstra and Optus would find it difficult to participate, while mid-sized providers might take part in the trial simply to prove the technology "unfeasible".

Mr Jacobs said the civil liberties group was also concerned at what would be deemed "unwanted content".

"It is unclear how ACMA will scale up their blacklist to 10,000 websites and what will go on the list," he said.

"Mr Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list.

"Under the current mandate that includes adult material, which would mean most material that could be rated R and, in some circumstances, material rated MA15+."

Can I seek political asylum somewhere please?

[Trab]

And in all fairness to Americans, it is THIS type of thing by government why they insist on the right to carry arms. The really pathetic part in all this is the oft used reason of "we must protect the children", which would hold a whole lot me credibility if they would stop bullying, provide for proper nutrition, ensure loving parenting, and establish a truly effective education system.

[captainrick]

GADS!

When are the book-burnings?

This is... unfathonable to me.... I thought your labor party was the more progressive "liberal" side.

I don't know what to say as I simply don't get this. I believe that our first amendment in this country would prevent such as this but I am so shocked as to be speechless. Who died and appointed these assholes as the "guardians of the internet"? If the same is attempted here.... umm Canada is looking better and better....

Rick

[colinian]

Sounds like these guys in Australia went to China and liked what they saw the Chinese government doing to the internet there. That's damn sad.

Colin

[DesDownunder]

GADS!

When are the book-burnings?

This is... unfathonable to me.... I thought your labor party was the more progressive "liberal" side.

I don't know what to say as I simply don't get this. I believe that our first amendment in this country would prevent such as this but I am so shocked as to be speechless. Who died and appointed these assholes as the "guardians of the internet"? If the same is attempted here.... umm Canada is looking better and better....

Rick

Rick,

I have said it before, but I am happy to repeat it everyday that our Right-wing party is called, "The Liberal Party". They usually always form a coalition to form a government with the "National Party". They seek to Rule.

The Liberal-National coalition is a conservative political group similar to the US Republicans.

The Left-wing party in Australia is called "The Labor Party" and is derived from the union base, socialists and other libertine groups. They should seek to govern. The Labor party is similar to the US Democrats.

What we see happening is that the Religious right is infiltrating both the above parties, at the expense of the time-honoured Australia notions of "fair-play" and "Live and Let Live" if not common sense when we can find it. Therefore they are keen to filter the Net.

Repercussions from the fall of the USSR and of Bush's anti-terrorist and other international policies has shifted even Left-wing parties to the right of centre on the political spectrum. Of course Australia did not have to go along with Bush, but we did, under the Liberal Party's previous Prime Minister John Howard, whose political and social ideologies were more akin to the 1950s than the 21st Century.

(The Liberal Party government was defeated in our 2007 election.)

Now however we have the Labor Party Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, appearing to bend to the influences of the Religious Right on matters of Law and Order, which rather places them even further to the right on some issues, than the Liberal Party.

Colin, comments are also being made about Chaiman K.Rudd.

The Liberal Party, not to be outdone and also missing the point, then goes more to the right on issues they think will gain them the voting numbers for election.

The independant swinging voters are beginning to explore the minor parties like the Greens or as I saw today form a new party, The latest new party being called ASP, the Australian Sex Party. -No I am not joking. See this article from the Melbourne Herald-Sun.

Our state police forces are being armed to the teeth with both weapons and laws, ostensibly to keep the peace but in fact to control the people to bend to the will of the fundamentalist Christian religious minorities. That's the way I see it, anyway.

If we hadn't had the gay laws changed we would all have been stoned to death by now, or worse.

For further comparisons of the political spectrum I urge you to go to the Political Compass site. Make sure you do their test first, so your results are more in line with your own thinking. The Compass results for the Us election are interesting as they indicate Obama's position may well have a Left wing influence on World politics.

The Compass results for Australia's 2007 election clearly show the shifts to the right I discuss above.

Of course the financial crisis is tending to overshadow if not influence, all political flavours at the moment, and for some time to come.

Canada you say? Trab, is that right?

I am off to join the Australian Sex Party. I wonder if they would make me Leader? I've had lots of experience.

If you have the time, have a look at this angry Aussie. Warning: Aussie humour and profanity may offend some people.

[Trab]

The tendency here is to swing ever so slowly to the right, but fortunately it is far from universal. In my own province of B.C. the latest polls show a massive popular swing to the left, mostly due to a combination of environmental and human rights concerns, and this flies directly in the face of growing belief that the current party in power is the best to deal with economic woes. In other words, despite people feeling the aggressive commercial interests are best for the economy, they are still swinging away from that party. What is even more fascinating here is that ALL the right wing parties joined together to form a large one to combat the fearful prospect of yet another election lost to a party that actually thinks about people first, and while they did win the election (the forces of evil greed won), they are again slipping back.

The trouble here, and in most democratic countries, is mostly from the system set up to represent the constituents. By breaking up the country into regions, then electing whatever party has the greatest number of votes, we don't get fair representation at all. Theoretically at least, if you have 5 parties running candidates, and all were more or less equally popular, a simple 20% plus 1 single vote could have one party totally in charge, even while 80% minus one person hates them. That is simply not good enough, and with the electronics now possible, we should be changing the system to elect based not on regions, but the popular vote over the whole country. I can just as easily contact an elected representative on the far side of the country, 5 times zones away, as I can the one in the next town.

Sadly, we are still getting gay bashings here, which is mind boggling to me, but at least a growing number are being dealt with for what they are; not simple assault, but hate crimes. Things are obviously not great, but they do seem to be improving.

[DesDownunder]

Trab at least you seem to have a left wing party that identifies with the Left's traditional humanitarian objectives.

Our problem is that our Left wing has been infiltrated by the right wing fundamentalists, pushing the Right wing party even further to the right. If the moderates in that Right Wing party take control of it, it's conceivable that the parties could swap places.

[Graeme]

To add to Des's explanation of the Australian political landscape, you can describe both of our major parties as being fiscally conservative. The Liberal Party is pro-employer and the Labor Party is pro-employee... and otherwise there's not a lot of difference between them.

On the plus side, for our community, both sides are supporting the move to remove discrimination against same-sex couples at the federal level. They are working to treat same-sex couples the same as defacto heterosexual couples -- who already have most of the legal rights as a married couple. The one thing neither party is brave enough to do... yet... is to support same sex marriage.

This proposal is likely to fail. The only real question is how much damage it does before it is scrapped.