I warned everyone a few months ago that the Australia government was in the process of rolling out compulsory Internet censorship and as predicted it has happened:
On May 22 many large internet providers including the largest one Optus will roll out a testing phase of the nationwide Internet censorship program. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has a
so called blacklist of banned sites ranging from sites promoting anorexia to child related sex sites. The Authority has the ability to add any site which the government deeps inappropriate to this 'black list' and this can be expanded to include sites on terrorism and basically anything the government deeps inappropriate.
The blacklist itself is secret (no suprise), as it is in most countries that censor content. This angers many who believe that secrecy lends itself to abuse. In Finland, for instance, a man who runs a website arguing that the blacklist approach is ineffective was called in for questioning last year after publishing "a list of a few hundred censored sites." His own site was then placed on the blacklist, which means that visitors from Finland are greeted by a message saying that the site they are trying to reach contains illegal images.
As i am in Australia this is very concerning as no site, not even realufos.net is safe from this list!
So what can be done?
We need to take action now by letting policymakers know just what we think of the "clean feed" Internet filter, we can bring about a policy change. If you are with ISP Optus dont participate with the filter program and when you get an email from them in May - 'Say No' to signing up for the test.
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