God Damn! It feels good to be angry about something again!
I don't know how many of you have heard about this, but there's a proposal bouncing around in Parliament to introduce an ISP level Internet filter in Australia. Basically this means that some factions of the government (the Family First Party, lead by proxy by Labor Senator Stephen Conroy) want to place immovable blocks on the service all Australian internet providers offer, banning any computer inside Australia from accessing forbidden content. Iran already has one, as does China (often referred to as "The Great Firewall of China").
Initially the proposition was intended to block Australian access to illegal content, child-porn and whatnot, but it's now been expanded to include a block on 'adult' content. This new proposal includes an option for over-18's to opt-out and regain access to restricted areas of the 'net (except, of course, the illegal stuff). Again, in basic terms this means that Internet porn will be banned from every house in Australia, and, if you want to exercise your right as an adult to view it you need to add yourself to a database to do so. Essentially you'll need to register with the government to look at online porn. Does this make anybody else's skin crawl?
To put it into context this very site; our beloved Suicidegirls, the site that brings so many of us so much joy, would be banned in our country. We'd all, every Australian member, have to register with the government to be allowed to visit SG.
THE RAGE, IT BURNS, IT BURNS!!!
If you want to see what life would be like behind such a filter, there's an addon available for Firefox that mimics China's Great Firewall. You can get it here. I tried it out last night and it's really scary. If you're not using Firefox (for shame!) another and equally as effective way of experiencing this kind of restriction is to reach down and unplug your ethernet cable or wireless card and then try to surf the 'net. Seriously, it's THAT restrictive.
Now, this proposal is far from becoming a reality. in fact, based on this article it sounds like it might already be beaten, thanks to the efforts of outraged internet communities (this article focusses on Twitter, but the same power, I think, can easily be ascribed to other online communities).
If this idea scares you and, honestly, it should, get involved and do something about it.
This website is a good place to start: http://nocleanfeed.com/
There's more info and opinions (as well as details about protests coming up) here.
There's also a bit of good insight in the comments of this article.
I swear by God and Lucifer fucking in Hades that if this thing goes ahead, I'm personally mobilising a door-knock army to teach people how to use international proxy sites to get around the filter without registration. I honestly cannot believe that in the 21st century, a western, first-world government is even entertaining the idea of making people register for internet freedom.
AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know how many of you have heard about this, but there's a proposal bouncing around in Parliament to introduce an ISP level Internet filter in Australia. Basically this means that some factions of the government (the Family First Party, lead by proxy by Labor Senator Stephen Conroy) want to place immovable blocks on the service all Australian internet providers offer, banning any computer inside Australia from accessing forbidden content. Iran already has one, as does China (often referred to as "The Great Firewall of China").
Initially the proposition was intended to block Australian access to illegal content, child-porn and whatnot, but it's now been expanded to include a block on 'adult' content. This new proposal includes an option for over-18's to opt-out and regain access to restricted areas of the 'net (except, of course, the illegal stuff). Again, in basic terms this means that Internet porn will be banned from every house in Australia, and, if you want to exercise your right as an adult to view it you need to add yourself to a database to do so. Essentially you'll need to register with the government to look at online porn. Does this make anybody else's skin crawl?
To put it into context this very site; our beloved Suicidegirls, the site that brings so many of us so much joy, would be banned in our country. We'd all, every Australian member, have to register with the government to be allowed to visit SG.
THE RAGE, IT BURNS, IT BURNS!!!
If you want to see what life would be like behind such a filter, there's an addon available for Firefox that mimics China's Great Firewall. You can get it here. I tried it out last night and it's really scary. If you're not using Firefox (for shame!) another and equally as effective way of experiencing this kind of restriction is to reach down and unplug your ethernet cable or wireless card and then try to surf the 'net. Seriously, it's THAT restrictive.
Now, this proposal is far from becoming a reality. in fact, based on this article it sounds like it might already be beaten, thanks to the efforts of outraged internet communities (this article focusses on Twitter, but the same power, I think, can easily be ascribed to other online communities).
If this idea scares you and, honestly, it should, get involved and do something about it.
This website is a good place to start: http://nocleanfeed.com/
There's more info and opinions (as well as details about protests coming up) here.
There's also a bit of good insight in the comments of this article.
I swear by God and Lucifer fucking in Hades that if this thing goes ahead, I'm personally mobilising a door-knock army to teach people how to use international proxy sites to get around the filter without registration. I honestly cannot believe that in the 21st century, a western, first-world government is even entertaining the idea of making people register for internet freedom.
AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
dah:
I agree with you. This is disgusting that the government thinks they can do it. I can understand where the thought has come but in reality it won't work. My thoughts were regarding eating disorders. So they will block sites to stop they from happening when they could stop someone from receiving help.