Australian Enterprises Block Sex Party's Political Site

schliz writes "Corporate web filters in some organizations are blocking web access to the Australian Sex Party, which is a registered political party that is contesting Australia's upcoming August 21 Federal Election. The site features policies and campaign material, including opposition to the Government's mandatory internet filtering proposal. Party convener Fiona Patten said that although the term 'sex' in the party's website URL could be responsible for its filtering woes, the party is unlikely to consider a name change: 'I think the fact that people are still blocking our site just because of the word "sex" in the name shows that we need this political movement.'"

Comments

A filter method doomed to fail?

[kaptink]

I have to admitt that seeing www.sexparty.org.au does not make me think of politics at a first glance. But it's interesting however that filters will pick it up as adult content when i'm sure other sites contain sex somewhere in the url - for example deliveriesexpress.com.au. I assume since sex is the first part of the url it is picked up. What about sextantrepairs.com or any of these http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/sex/ ?

Re:Though to ponder.

[mwvdlee]

What could be another reason and would that reason be any better?

Come to Australia

[acehole]

In the (Blacked out) of the [Censored].

I've been making plans to get a job in another country. This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or East Germany circa 1980, not Australia.

Re:Come to Australia

[donscarletti]

I've been making plans to get a job in another country.

I'm an Aussie living abroad. I have been to many, many countries and I've got to say, that there will always be something wrong with most places. I think it is once thing to see something bad happen in your own country, like seeing your own house in flames is worse than your neighbours, but you can never find a country which is how you like it.

This story is a beat up anyway, this is just private internal networks, they can block the Labor, Liberal, National, Greens or whoever they want for all I care. I think doing stupid shit in your business is part of the great freedom that Australians enjoy.

Getting back to the point, where will you run to? The world is full of conflicting social agendas. There will always be things you can say and things you can't. I caught my Chinese girlfriend wearing this extraordinarily racist T-shirt. She told me that she should be able to say what she wants about the Japanese because she doesn't like them. She can wear it on the streets of Beijing without a hassle, but would be at least severely reprimanded in most "free" countries.

I have not been to Australia for close to a year, but last time I was there, the amount of stuff you can get away with saying, looking at online, keeping for personal use or doing in your bedroom was astoundingly high by world standards. My advice is that unless Family First and Christian Democrats form a coalition government or Sharia law is established in Western Sydney that moving somewhere else for more freedom may be a counterproductive piece of theatrics that only has the consequence of giving the country one less supporter of liberal policies.

By all means, if you want to own a big gun, go to somewhere like the Philippines, if you want drugs and porn, you could go to Amsterdam. If you want to escape racism, you can go to somewhere diverse like Singapore or if you want to indulge in racism, just pick any other country in Asia. If you want freedom to be in a legally sanctioned Homosexual marriage, you can go to Belgium, or if you want freedom to say you hate homosexuals you can go to Saudi Arabia. But I guarantee you, something about wherever you are will piss you off and you will act like your standard whiny Aussie expat moaning about how Australia does X better. Something akin to the flood of wannabe refugees threatening to pour over the Saint Laurence river in either direction whenever some unpopular policy comes up on one side of it.

The problem with Australia is the bitching. Some people complain about "hostile workplaces" so they bring in filters to block porn. The porn filter apparently blocks this "sex party" because someone thought it referred to a site about orgies so it is met with another tide of complaints.

Australia is unfair, just like the planet on which it is located. By all means, decry your country at the pub, but just remember, that kind of behaviour is enough to get you flattened by rednecks in other free countries. And honestly, if you think redacting a non-binding discussion paper released to the public is on the same level as what happens in the "Democratic People's Republic" of Korea or the German "Democratic" Republic, then that just shows how sheltered you are in your little country and how much of a shock you'd get if you left.

Re:sex party?

[Anonymous Coward]

From Wikipedia (ie. probably authored by them, but still they're obviously serious):
Censorship
        * Bring about the establishment of a truly national classification scheme which includes a uniform non-violent erotica rating for explicit adult material for all jurisdictions and through all media including the Internet and computer games.
        * Introduce an R and X rating for computer games.
        * To overturn mandatory ISP filtering of the Internet (see Internet censorship in Australia) and return Internet censorship to parents and individuals.
        * Oppose mandatory retention of all Australian users' internet browsing history and emails by ISPs for at-will inspection by law enforcement agencies, and support strong judicial oversight over the ability of law enforcement to access individuals' internet and email data.

Education
        * To bring about the development of a national sex education curriculum as a first step in preventing the sexualisation of children.
        * Development of a national internet education scheme for parents.

Equality
        * To enact national anti-discrimination laws which make it illegal to unfairly discriminate against people or companies on the basis of job, occupation, profession or calling.
        * To bring about equal numbers of men and women in the Parliament through enabling the Federal Discrimination Act to have jurisdiction extending to political parties.
        * To create total equal rights in all areas of the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
        * Overturn racist laws that ban Aboriginal people from possessing erotic and sexual media in the Northern Territory.
        * Ensure the sexual rights and freedoms of the disabled and elderly.

Health
        * To enact national pregnancy termination laws along the same lines as divorce law -- which allow for legal, no-fault, guilt-free processes for women seeking termination.
        * The listing of Viagra, Cialis, and other drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
        * Overturn restrictions on aid to overseas family planning organisations that reference abortion.

Protection of children
        * Convene a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in the nation's religious institutions.
        * Develop global approaches to tackling child pornography which focus on detection and apprehension of the producers of the material.

Workplace relations
        * Ensure that the introduction of paid maternity leave is fair and equitable for small businesses.
        * Abolish sex slavery and sexual servitude by introducing non morality-based immigration policies that allow bona-fide sex workers to work legally in Australia.

Other
        * Ending the tax exempt status for religions.

Re:As an Australian...

[Mashiki]

I couldn't care if it was 14, 14,000, 14,000,000 or just 1 person. Blocking a political party because "sex" is in the name is wrong. If you can't figure out why, you're part of the problem with those that want to stomp on democracy.

No polticial free speech...

[Gavin Rogers]

Australia may rank 16th on the Press Freedom Index, But unfortunately Australia doesn't have US 1st Amendment-like protection for political free speech. (The High Court has ruled that it's heavily implied in the constitution, but it's not absolutely stated). There's no "You can't block that, it's political free speech!" kind of laws.

Re:No polticial free speech...

[Scrameustache]

The first amendment wouldn't apply here - a private employer has every right to block whatever they wish, it's not a freedom of speech issue.

The amendment would not apply because its scope is limited to government, indeed, but it is a freedom of speech issue. The concept of freedom of speech is independent of the legal framework devised to protect it. Private censorship is still censorship.

Re:Though to ponder.

[tomhudson]

What could be another reason and would that reason be any better?

Maybe they also have a few other words mixed in that the filters object to:

"We're upset about business blocking us - we have absolutely no pornographic content whatsoever!" said Marsha Sexsmith, a resident of Cockburn Street, Originally from Scunthorpe, England, she's an anthropologist. She's traveled to Matiti (French Polynesia), Clitheroe, Fistina, Woody Bay (UK), Pisset, Balsac, and Pussy (France), Bastardo (Italy), Hashita (Israel), Youfukyou and Fuxingmen(China), Labia (Egypt), Licking (US) and Titicaca (Titicaca, Peru, Titicaca Creek in the US, and of course Titicaca court in Western Australia). "It's only in Titicaca, Washington, that I saw anything as silly as this! Even Suckstem and Cassman Spring (also in the US) weren't as bad!" Ms. SexSmith was commenting from her campaign office on Fistula Street in Queensland.

Read it wrong

[nten]

The GP probably read the summary wrong like I did. If I had RTFA, I would have realized that it wasn't the great firewall of OZ blocking information about a political party (which would have been anti-democracy), it was instead a sensationalistic bit about a few corporate web-filters blocking the site.

Re:Did they even think about this one?

[amck]

Had you thought that this might be the point of naming it so ?

Breaking down taboos about talking about such matters is ones of their aims. My daughter is 7 and long past asking such questions: she knows google and the internet and will look it up herself, even with filters on the PC. While most of the nastier bits of life have not been covered yet, kids at that age need to know the basics; what sex is, why you don't post personal details to the net, etc.

The idea of keeping kids ignorant until their 18 simply isn't an option, and honest, healthy discussion of such topics, rather than treating _adults_ in an infantile manner to preserve false innocence is part of the Sex Partys platform.
 

Re:Did they even think about this one?

[Scrameustache]

Are you going to have 8-year-old asking, "Daddy, what does sex mean?" I'm not sure I'd vote for a party that put me through that kind of hassle.

"Sex is the difference between men and women. When you fill out forms, they have a question about sex and you answer boy or girl." Wow, what a hassle.

Re:Though to ponder.

[Jedi Alec]

But the general worker really has no reason to be browsing, period.

Suit yourself. In that case I'll be spending my lunch hour in the internet cafe, with my phone turned off.

What's that, you'd gotten used to me being reachable by phone during lunch break? Well, that's just tough cookies, trust and flexibility go 2 ways. Treat me like we're in kindergarten and I'll be happy to return the favor.

Or we could both go on pretending we're responsible adults...