Will Australia Follow China's Google Ban?

gadgetopia writes "A news report in Forbes says that China has blocked Google with its great firewall; now the world waits to see if Australia's Minister for Censorship, Senator Stephen Conroy, will do the same following his outrageous attacks on Google."

Comments

Lol? Sif it will happen.

[quarrel]

Politics might be stupid in Australia, like lots of places. But no, it won't go the same was as China.

We have transparency and rule of law.

However fucked out Communications Minister might be.

--Q

Re:Lol? Sif it will happen.

[copponex]

>>>rule of law.

"What's that?" - leader
"No clue." - other leader

"Well, fuck off then." -voter in next election*

*only valid in literate and civically active cultures

Re:Lol? Sif it will happen.

[elrous0]

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, I should point out that Germany before the 1930's was almost unquestionably the most academically and intellectually sophisticated country in the world. If you had went back to Germany in the 20's and told them that within 20 years, their country would elect one of the most intolerant demagogues and world history as dictator and begin systematically committing the genocide of a sizable portion of their population, they would have laughed at the thought. We always like to think that we're above devolving into brutality, oppression, and totalitarianism; but things can fall apart amazingly fast once you start heading down a certain road. I wouldn't just dismiss it so casually.

Re:Lol? Sif it will happen.

[Mindcontrolled]

I am not sure if that is completely right. Sure, Germany in the 20s was on the one hand a academically and intellectually sophisticated country. On the other hand, it was a severely torn country, with large parts of the population not standing behind the transition from monarchy to democracy, a hugely polarized political scene with fighting between communists and fascists on the streets - a pressure cooker waiting for the lid to blow. That is probably actually one of the reasons for the vibrant cultural scene of the 20s, everything being overheated, everything being in overdrive. I am pretty sure that there was a significant percentage at least of the intellectual groups of Germany's society in the 20s who would not have dismissed your prediction, who felt that there was an explosion to come.

Re:I would

[MozeeToby]

What about censorship of political, religious, and controversial viewpoints? This is about Freedom of expression and Freedom of communication more than it is about any single issue. If the blocking were voluntary so that people could decide individually if their internet should be censored, I could understand. If the black list were publicly available so that people inside and outside the country could audit what is being blocked, I could maybe understand. If the previously leaked block list hadn't included material that they had claimed wasn't going to be blocked, I could maybe, just possibly agree with you.

As it stands, you have a government organization which will have the ability to block any website that they want without warning or explanation. There will be no way for people inside the firewall to know what is and what isn't being blocked. And said government organization has already been shown to be either incompetent or nefarious regarding what is being added to the blacklist. It's a bad situation, and it in fact does trample on human rights.

specifically

[circletimessquare]

when your economy is trashed by greedy speculation then fear and hysteria. that's what sent germany to the dogs: the great depression, the collapse of the financial world

aka, what the world just experiences in 2008 (on a much smaller scale, true)

but this historical parallel leads us to four observations:

1. the angry tea partiers, with their brick throwing and insane murderous anger, IS kristallnacht, on a smaller scale

2. intolerant deluded propagandized fools hording guns in the woods are the seeds of fascism, NOT our protectors from fascism

3. we need strong government regulation in the financial sector, and the assholes (greenspan and co) who dismantled the 1930s era (irony) protections need to be grilled a la congressional hearings and roundly castigated for their dangerous irresponsibility

4. hopefully the world, and the usa, can weather this horde of angry morons out of work, the seeds of fascism, without them crystallizing around some modern day hitler-like demagogue and mounting a political (and visceral: they love guns) challenge to civilization. and then let the retards fade away into history

interesintg note: many tea partiers receive government benefits (unemployment, medicaid)... while they rail against government aid. they go to tea party rallies... instead of looking for work. fucking ignorant hypocrites

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html