Australian Government Backing Down On Censorship

Combat Wombat sends the news that the government in Australia has begun waffling on whether country-wide Internet censorship will be mandatory. "The Rudd Government has indicated that it may back away from its mandatory Internet filtering plan. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today told a Senate estimates committee that the filtering scheme could be implemented by a voluntary industry code. ... [The shadow communications minister] said he had never heard of a voluntary mandatory system. ... Senator Conroy's statement is a departure from the internet filtering policy Labor took into the October 2007 election to make it mandatory for ISPs to block offensive and illegal content." The censorship plan, which has been called "worse than Iran," was bypassed even before trials started. A minister's defection may have effectively blocked any chance of implementation.

Comments

Re:Could someone invite that guy over to Germany?

[Mountaineer1024]

Tell you what, on behalf of a vast majority of Australians I invite you to keep him.

Re:Who didn't see this coming?

[AnalPerfume]

"Things that live under rocks on the floor of the Pacific Ocean knew it would happen"

Citation required. How many were polled, what was the species make up and how many were just sheltering from predators when the clipboard people came to call and were just answering the questions to avoid drawing the "outsider" tag and being forced outside?

Re:!victory

[goose-incarnated]

Well, yeah ... if you can't be bothered to swim 5 feet to safety, why should you live?

:-)