Aussie Internet
Censorship Plan Meets Resistance
 December
24 - Isn't it strange how some of the world's most 'free and
democratic' countries - such as the United States and more
recently Australia - are beginning to resemble the kind of
soul-destroying, utilitarian-style state depicted by author
George Orwell in his famous book 1984?
I think so, particularly since 'free and democratic' is supposed
to go hand in hand with freedom of choice, where adults should
be able to decide for themselves what Internet sites to access,
what TV or films to watch, what music to listen to and which
religious or political group to embrace or not etc.
However, according to recent reports the Australian government
is pushing to 'dictate' areas of the Internet that its citizens
can and cannot access, by testing out a costly Internet
filtering system designed to filter out certain categories of
Internet websites that are deemed to be 'undesirable'.
One such category - and understandably so - is that of child
pornography. However, the problem is that this Internet
censorship scheme could also include other areas of the Internet
that the government wants to crack down on including online
gambling sites, political sites and many more.
So what this means is that if you live in Australia - which is
already acknowledged as the world's most anal country - you as
an adult could be prevented from exercising your right to gamble
online, check out political websites, or any other websites that
falls under the censorship guidelines.
Two of the country's opposition political parties, the Greens
and the Liberals which are both staunch anti-censorship
advocates, have criticized the proposed scheme which they say
could not be properly enforced and will affect the country's
Internet speeds as well as prevent access to 'legitimate'
websites.
It is thought that the so called high-tech Internet filters
would struggle to distinguish between 'approved and
non-approved' content which means that whole user-generated
content-driven websites - such as Wikipedia and YouTube - could
be censored across the board over a single dodgy posting.
In a statement, online users lobby group Electronic Frontiers
Australia said that the Internet censorship proposal would put
'Australia on a par with highly oppressive regimes such as Iran
and China', never mind the United States, which is also in the
process of enforcing its online gambling ban.
Many of Australia's largest ISPs have said that they will not
take part in the Internet censorship trials, and the ones that
have agreed to take part have stated that they are doing so only
to show the government that the scheme won't work.
It's hard to decide which is more annoying - the Australian
accent, its countless flies, its crappy national cricket side or
its 'Big Brother' government. I'm gonna go with all four.
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