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Australia Plans to Censor the Internet
MAXOMENOS writes "The Australian government is planning to block websites used to organize violent protests, as part of a larger effort to prevent crime from being planned on the 'net." Yeah this is gonna work really really. It's working
out great in China after all.
I'm not.
I've been to the land down under, and it's one of the more fascist countries I've visited. They are even worse than the US.
They are the country the most wiretaps per citizen. They still treat the aborigines as second rate citizens, and they inprison imigrants in consentration camps.
China is Australias morst important trading partner. Now wonder some strange ideas come back from China.
- Ost
---- Sig. gone.
Just keep hugging that imaginary teddy-bear and voting republican - you're Mr. Ashcroft's wet dream. But then again, the US has freedom of the press, right? U.S. Ranks 17th in Freedom of the Press
Frankly, I'm surprised to see any Australian supporting their utterly SHIT government, but you're probably one of the conservative idiots that voted them in. Australia is one of the WORST places to live when it comes to internet access and freedom, certainly. What with boadband caps, a state endorsed monopoly from Telstra, and now state BLOCKING OF WEBSITES? What if people, god forbid, actually have a *genuine reason* to riot, or at least, protest? Like, becaue the believe the government is utterly obsessed with taking away any freedom they may have? The government should be able to try and block any kind of anti-govt movement should they? You're on a one way path to despotism.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
If you had a functioning brain, you'd know that banning sites simply makes it more difficult for people to find out what's really going on. You think evil will simply go away because you want to stay in bed and pull the covers over your head when you hear about it and you want the taxpayers to help you do this? While you obviously prefer to live in your own delusional world, the rest of us are adults who need to know what reality is like so we can do something about it.
For instance, if one knows a violent protest will be happening soon, a smart person will be somewhere else if several thousand people are planning to throwing rocks and bottles at the police. Of course, if the police respond with gunfire, if you get caught by a stray bullet because you didn't know, it's just chlorinating the human genetic pool.
Personally, I like to know what the "bad guys" are up to and why and the best way to do this is to find out in person what they've got to say, not what the mass media where you get your ideas says they have to say. If you think that violent protests or terrorism can be stopped by blocking IPs, you're as ignorant as the rest of your post says you are.
If you need a government to protect YOU from being exposed to BAD IDEAS because you might follow through on them, you don't need a law and a bunch of armed thugs to enforce it, what you need is to unplug your connection to the Internet. Smashing your monitor over your head afterwards isn't required, though it would probably be a good thing.
You are one of those morons who wants to trade freedom not for security, but the illusion of security. You're obviously comfortable with the idea of living in a society where only those willing to break the law and the government have monopolies on both guns and uncensored information. Why don't you move to China or Australia where the government agrees with you? Of course, if the government grabs you by mistake and ignores your bleating "I'm innocent", you may suddenly realize you've been wrong all these years. But the government doesn't ever make mistakes, right? If they tell you you're a terrorist, you'll probably believe them and decide that your belief of never having associated with terrorist organizations must be a delusion.
If I happen to find myself in the middle of a violent protest the government-approved mass media didn't tell me about in advance, the only way I'm going to find out why this happened should I have the misfortune to live in AU is to break the law using an anon proxy or other tools which you probably aren't capable of understanding and don't need to know about.
jackals in the NRA, and it is just as false now as when those murderers invented it.
So the NRA is composed of a group of tens of millions of murderers?
Why, the government must do something about them before some AWFUL NRA person kills me in my bed with a BIG, NASTY GUN!
Presumably, you intended "jackal" as a compliment, believing (correctly) that an average jackal has 20-30 IQ points on you.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Wow, Australia almost passes Canada in anti-free-speech activity!
Ernst Zundel, an active user of hate-speech has for years shown up Canada for what a lack of free-speech we have by hosting it all outside this country.
I'd link to his site so you can all have a good laugh at what kind of a nutter he is, but I don't want special interest groups to suggest I'm promoting hate speech and have me carted off to jail.
IMHO, how can you possibly decide for yourself what is right and wrong thinking if you're never given the opportunity to see what's wrong?
The only difference is that in Canada all speech is limited like this, not just 'net speech.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC