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Australian Government Backdoor Internet Filter Shuts Down 1,000 Websites
An anonymous reader writes "The Australian government has secretly censored over 1,000 web sites through a hitherto-unused internet censorship law. In April the Melbourne Free University was blocked without any explanation. Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act allows the government to close web sites without warning to "uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security". This is open to abuse as Australians only have limited free speech rights which already make it difficult for the press to report corruption."
They must be thoroughly corrupt.
And the 1000 sites are? This came up a few days ago and I asked the same question. It would reveal more of the intent of the Australian dictatorship.
I come here for the love
Also, these sites would serve as 1,000 canaries for any future attempts at suffocation. Could set up a script to check if they are up each day/hour.
I come here for the love
"uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security" are vague enough that many things can be engulfed based on the government's point of view of any particular website on any particular day. I wish they put this much effort into "uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security" when it came to politicians telling the truth, consumer protection and shite advertising.
the Backdoor Internet is my favorite Internet.
But don't forget the median household income is $43,960 and they have 5.6% unemployment. Free healthcare and education. So don't get too crazy about free speech and all. They can go at least another 20 years before they have sold the whole country to China.
Whilst funny, Fosters is not popular in Australia and is rarely seen
What do you expect from a country that originally had a white population from only two different groups: Criminals, and jailers?
Reminds me of a quip from an Aussie acquaintance a few years ago: He said he was happy that Australia got the criminals and America got the religious groups.
Of course, that's not really relevant to this issue. Politicians anywhere should be assumed corrupt and on the take unless they can prove otherwise. And laws limiting the population's access to information about their government's inner workings are de-facto proof of the "otherwise".
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
The locals are too busy sitting on the tailgate of their ute (bought on credit) drinking cans of VB and acting bogan do anything about it.
Or else they are off chasing some blonde from Home & Away. Anyway censorship and freedom of speech are unreported in the Fox-controlled media
FTFY
[Rent This Space]
Nobody actually drinks fosters ... but the rest is kinda accurate.
Most are worried about the recent budget and the up coming election in September to even notice this.
At least we have a decent electoral system.
just goes to show you know nothing but Aussies:
- they don't drink fosters (that's for yank tourists)
- they have 'utes' - not pickup trucks
- they're macho because they don't assume that everything said to them is a veiled insult
- and the women chase the men - usually with sticks and knives.
But thanks for illustrating the difference between us and you ;)
Nobody actually drinks fosters ..
Yeah, they drink VB, which actually manages to be worse.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
They will just block your IP. You need a massive network of different IP addresses to keep it going.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Post was not meant to be serious. Ah well
You pretty much contradicted yourself. If it was blocked in error then SOMEBODY must have some blocking in place, No?
Australian Securities and Investments Commission was behind the blocking of the Melbourne Free University website
Further, this was already admitted by the Australian government:
The news came tonight in a statement issued by the office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, following a controversial event in April which saw some 1,200 websites wrongfully blocked by several of Australia’s major Internet service providers.
Over the past week, a number of different Federal Government involved in Internet regulation, including the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Communications and Media Authority have denied involvement in the April block. However, tonight Senator Conroy’s office revealed that the incident that resulted in Melbourne Free University and more than a thousand other sites being blocked originated from a different source — financial regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Free healthcare and education?
That's a lie, that right there.
Anonymous to shut down the government web sites.
Hmmm, so obvious ....
As opposed to another country that has free speech, but citizen votes have no effect at all on most outcome.
Healthcare is free if your taxable income is low enough (otherwise you pay the Medicare Levy each tax year unless you have bought Health Insurance).
Education is free for everyone up until University (but you can choose to pay to send your kids to private school).
Change "Pickup truck" to "Ute" and "tins of Fosters" to "tinnies of VB" and you're spot on.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
Anyway censorship and freedom of speech are fairly low on the agenda
Say rather not on any agenda anywhere in the country and you're closer to the truth. The hon(!) R. Finkelstein, a respected Australian jurist, has this to say about freedom of speech
"United States, free speech is given primacy among rights, and therefore the potential harm caused by restrictions on speech is thought to outweigh the potential harm caused by speech that is not restricted. In Australia free speech does not necessarily have the same primacy"
more on the hon(!) R. Finkelsteins' views of free speech here
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
"In the United States, free speech is given primacy among rights, and therefore the potential harm caused by restrictions on speech is thought to outweigh the potential harm caused by speech that is not restricted. In Australia free speech does not necessarily have the same primacy. "
A respected Australian retired judge would seem to endorse that view. And he not only applauds the greater restrictions on their speech that Australians "enjoy", he thinks that we don't enjoy enough of them.
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
In other countries it is common to see tearful government officials handcuffed and walked in front of tv cameras. You never see that in Australia. The fed police are corrupt and anyone who reports corruption gets sacked. Look what they did to this reserve bank whistleblower right in front of RBA chief glen stevens:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/whistleblower-told-to-shut-up-20120913-25v8t.html
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/battellino-denies-warning-whistleblower-20121008-27850.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/whistleblower-raised-victimisation-with-rba-chief-20121004-270u4.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-14/whistleblower-outlines-bribery-allegations-in-securency-case/4262502
They have done it before. This guy did a web site making fun of the prime minister and the AFP called up his web host and got it shut down. No good reason to do it. They just didn't like what he said. The AFP are a political goon squad. http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/government-shuts-howard-spoof-site/2006/03/17/1142098638843.html http://www.countercurrents.org/aus-phillips240306.htm
Having lived in both countries, I'll take the crims any day. Much safer with them there, and the religious whackjobs on the far side of the Pacific.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The AFP are a political goon squad.
Yet they will refuse to fingerprint you without a documented good reason.
(Yes, I know this from personal experience. If you're curious: It was in connection with obtaining a criminal records check back in the US, for a job I had in Oz.)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...and for those of us who actually care about what we drink, there's Toohey's. :)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Dunno how that happened, but that was me.
Also, it's "ute", not "pickup truck".
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
My daughter got to survive her very difficult birth thanks to free Australian medical care.
Which would have bankrupted her mum and me had we stayed in the States to get married and settle, as we were penniless at the time, even assuming that we'd been able to get the care they needed in the US, without being able to prove we could pay for it first.
Just thought you might like to know.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
I love Australia, but I confess that I am not especially fond of the back-stab-fest that is Aussie politics, which seems mostly designed to chew up the decent and/or sane politicos and spit them out.
As for Julia, I guess she should be glad someone actually wants to fuck her in the normal way, rather than with the sharpened stake she herself favours using on others. And I find it hilarious that she of all people should start carrying on about the raw deal that Simon Crean got when she pulled a similar trick on Rudd.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...and for those of us who actually care about what we drink, there's Toohey's. :)
Which is perfectly adequate for brushing your teeth provided you don't swallow any of it :)
...have I just accidentally restarted the beer war?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
Mind if I ask when that was?
Some things used to be free. Education for one. But somebody had to pull the ladder up after him...
What do you expect from a country that originally had a white population from only two different groups: Criminals, and jailers?
This is a troll right? What a ridiculous statement to make! Waves of free immigrants from UK + Europe after the initial convict settlement dwarfs those convict numbers. Only a minority of 'white' australians today can trace their ancestory back to criminals and 'jailers', as you put it.
Oh it's worse than that. I live 20min drive from the Fosters brewery and yet I've never figured out where I would be able to buy the stuff. I've not seen it on sale anywhere.
The 1000+ websites mentioned in the post are (supposedly) part of a "cold-calling investment scam using the name ‘Global Capital Wealth’". The Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the federal corporate regulator, has ordered that their IP addresses be blocked, which also catches innocent websites co-hosted at those IP addresses.
The Australian Federal Police also asks ISPs to block websites listed by Interpol as containing “'worst of the worst' child pornography", apparently via DNS (news reports mention "domains" and "URLs"), but perhaps also at the IP level. Most ISPs have complied; at least one has refused.
[My take: There may be a case for corporate regulation bureaucrats to get some websites blocked, but only at DNS level and only in smaller numbers. Blocking extreme child porn sites via DNS would be next to useless, so I hope they also block at IP level.]
Let me get this right: understanding what a real dictatorship is gets called Very Naive?
Maybe there's hope for you in this world AC, but you'd better work on life instead of just letting it happen or you are screwed.
There's a reason we export it all.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Given their origin I'm not surprised...
Jokes aside, I would have expected news like this come from a country with a culture originating in China or the Mediterranean.
Countries with borders facing the North Sea tend to have lower rates of corruption; with France as the pathetic exception.
Australian education is freeish up to and including High School. Uni you have to pay for, later, at a much reduced rate to US university education, and it should still be avoided by a lot of people; we don't need most of the arts graduates.
Medical is freeish other the the medicare levy on those that can pay. It's still insurance, but at least 1.5% is better than the kind of cost US insurance is.
As for the free speech, yeah, nothing on Crikey's list gives me great concern. There's no Deep Throat and Woodward and Bernstein being silenced on that list. And if limited speech is the price I have to pay so that fuckstains like the Westboro Baptist Church could never happen here, than I'm more than happy with the trade off.