Aussies Hit the Streets Over Gov't Internet Filters

mask.of.sanity writes "Outraged aussies will hold simultaneous protests across Australia in opposition to the government's plans for mandatory ISP internet content filtering. The plan will introduce nation-wide filtered internet using blacklists operated by a government agency, away from public scrutiny. Politicians and ISPs will join protesters in the streets to voice their opposition to the government's plan, which has ploughed ahead, despite intense criticism that the technology will crippled internet speeds and infringe on free speech. Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block up to 10,000 Web pages out of 1 million."

Comments

The Grand Tube Experiment

[eldavojohn]

Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block up to 10,000 Web pages out of 1 million.

Uh, why didn't they use the metric of 10^4:10^6 or 1:100? Sounds like somebody wanted that statement to be heard as much more impacting than it is. The thing that worries me is that if we look at other technologies designed to "protect the people from themselves," a false positive rate of 1% really isn't that bad--especially on a fully automated system. A high false positive rate is--in my opinion--what's holding back facial recognition but I fear that 1% blockage of websites is completely acceptable to most folks. Maybe a better analogy is that of the FCC in America and the words you can't say on TV ... even though there is no research showing how these words negatively affect people, this small percent of our language and expression is blocked. This analogy (like all) is flawed, however, as you might never know what was on that website that caused the super happy and helpful animated kangaroo to appear on your computer and gently chide you that this site is not for Aussies.

Hopefully (and I'm betting on this) it will turn out to be a lot like prohibition. The outlawing of these sites and data cause their value to skyrocket, the government is made to look a mockery, your average citizen (I've heard talk of simple SSL encryption stopping this) knows how to reach them, in so doing they inadvertently supply criminals with capital and the very stupid law is repealed. Twenty years later, everyone is joking about "the Grand Experiment" and how pathetically futile it was to begin with.

Lastly, how is this any different than what China is doing? I'm surprised nobody has made this connection and accused the government of being no better than anti-free-speech China.

After reading a bit of the plan on Australia's Cyber-Safety, it's evident this quickly degrades into a "think of the children" mentality:

While the internet has created substantial benefits for children, it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to illegal and prohibited content. Parents rightly expect the Australian Government to play its part in helping protect children online.

So why isn't there an "opt-out" plan for those Aussie adults who like our interwebs a little dirty (and are over 18 years of age)?

Re:The Grand Tube Experiment

[poetmatt]

What you doubt, is not reality.

Remember the whole "5 9's" philosophy of uptime?

Well what if you reduce that back to 2 9's of uptime, which was like ....8 hours a year I believe. I think you know how big of a deal that even 1/10th of a percent can make, in that regards.

Now lets take this to an ineffective bloated government mandated filter, and you think it's going to work? Yeah, right. "we're only blocking 1% of the internet, and it happens to be every torrent sites (including linux ISOs) , and 0 child porn websites. I'm proud that the other 80% of the sites we filter are very effective".

Watch an almost identical quote to that come out of government mouthes if this is implemented.

Re:The Grand Tube Experiment

[gorbachev]

If that's true, they are simply going to blacklist a bunch of websites. I heavily doubt cnn/bbc/etc will ever negligently be put on that list.

They are doing something very similar in Finland. The biggest difference is that ISPs aren't required to filter based on the blocklist, yet.

An unnamed police officer (yes, apparently a single person) is in charge of what goes on the list and what comes off the list.

They recently put w3c.org on the list.

Obviously it was a mistake, but nevertheless it quite nicely demonstrated that any site can end up on the list.

Even Save the Children don't want the filters

[OzPeter]

A quote from this article in the The Age

"Holly Doel-Mackaway, adviser with Save the Children, the largest independent children's rights agency in the world, said educating kids and parents was the way to empower young people to be safe internet users.

She said the filter scheme was "fundamentally flawed" because it failed to tackle the problem at the source and would inadvertently block legitimate resources."

Not In The Streets

[Nom du Keyboard]

Hold your protests in the voting booth, not in the streets. Then something will really happen.

Re:Not In The Streets

[ratboy666]

No, not in the "voting booth".

The reason is simple -- a government that is elected sets up an organization. Typically, the organization is created without an "exit strategy". After which, future governments end up feeding it anyway.

So, we end up with a "internet monitoring" or "media monitoring" organization. It may live on a LONG time.

As an example: Ontario, Canada, created a censorship tribunal in 1911. By the 80's, very few people could tell much about it, although it was still active. Indeed, it existed until 2004, when it was declared "unconstitional" (in the Canadian sense). See: http://www.ccla.org/news/winter04-05_10.html

However, the Ontario Film Review Board still exists (http://www.ofrb.gov.on.ca/english/page4.h) but I find it interesting that the events of 2004 are not mentioned in its "self-history".

That is what happens to these initiatives. Leading to the only solution possible. "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." (Aliens).

Re:If we don't stop thepiratebay, the terrorists w

[Anonymous Coward]

big business and lobbyists for the music/movie/software studios who want to block torrent sites.

These issues are also a smoke screen, just like child porn and terrorists. The _real_ problem is free speech, that is what is under threat.

This was all planned. In "Between Two Ages" by Zbigniew Brzezinski he predicted the internet and the rise in free speech. This take down of the free internet is just the next step. Get us all hooked, get the world using it, then transform it into the greatest propaganda tool ever invented.

First they caught us in the "net". Now we are getting moved into the "grid".

We _must_ keep hold of the internet in its present form, this is very important.