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China says they built the Great Firewall to stop child porn, foreign-manipulated political views, etc. But a year ago, they extended the blocks to entire sites,

by vorg 16y ago

China says they built the Great Firewall to stop child porn, foreign-manipulated political views, etc. But a year ago, they extended the blocks to entire sites, e.g. all of Blogspot, Google Groups, and Youtube, not just the specific pages dealing with taboo subjects, like they do with Wikipedia. Obviously aimed at the company that runs those sites. Australia could go down the same road.

dublinclontarf 16y ago
And they have now just unblocked pornsites(I know you said childporn, but plain old regular porn is also illegal here, and is one of the main reasons for the GFW). Sites such as redtube etc. were blocked until about a month ago. They've all been unblocked for some reason.
- dmharrison 16y ago
  Yep good point RC refused classification is typically anything above R. So for example a porn store owner was just jailed for selling gay porn http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2927840.htm http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2927840.htm . RC != childporn and is quite broad, so if it is the bar quite a lot could be filtered and caught up in it. I'm sure some content would definitely be RC on youtube for example and with the general malaise of large swathes of the public service IT; I wouldn't put it past a ham fisted approach that catches up quite a lot. Was this on your connection? AFAIK none of this is blocked and no one was actively filtering. What ISP are you with?
  - hellotoby 16y ago
    To my knowledge content which is Refused Classification (RC) is illegal to sell in Australia, however it is not illegal to own such material. Here is an interesting link regarding the black hole of material which is refused classification. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10128 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10128 A pertinent quote being: With Refused Classification, Australia has a category that is not illegal, but the government would prefer that we thought it was.
  - ShardPhoenix 16y ago
    I think he was talking about China.
pmccool 16y ago
I doubt it. Australia has an implied freedom of political communication (per the Lange and Coleman v Power cases). This law is on shaky legal ground already. Blocking entire sites will make it more likely that the law will be struck down. It would also be more politically risky. No doubt they could try - it's technically possible - but I think they wouldn't. I agree that the fact that this law could be abused in such a way is a compelling objection to it.
- nl 16y ago
  Political sites in Australia have already been refused classification (ie, would be blocked). There was a candidate in the recent South Australian election who ran on an anti-abortion platform who's website was later refused classification. See http://lifenetwork.org.au/_bpost_2642/Australian_Government_censors_anti-abortion_websites http://lifenetwork.org.au/_bpost_2642/Australian_Government_...

by vorg 16y ago

dublinclontarf 16y ago

And they have now just unblocked pornsites(I know you said childporn, but plain old regular porn is also illegal here, and is one of the main reasons for the GFW). Sites such as redtube etc. were blocked until about a month ago. They've all been unblocked for some reason.

dmharrison 16y ago
Yep good point RC refused classification is typically anything above R. So for example a porn store owner was just jailed for selling gay porn http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2927840.htm http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2927840.htm . RC != childporn and is quite broad, so if it is the bar quite a lot could be filtered and caught up in it. I'm sure some content would definitely be RC on youtube for example and with the general malaise of large swathes of the public service IT; I wouldn't put it past a ham fisted approach that catches up quite a lot. Was this on your connection? AFAIK none of this is blocked and no one was actively filtering. What ISP are you with?
- hellotoby 16y ago
  To my knowledge content which is Refused Classification (RC) is illegal to sell in Australia, however it is not illegal to own such material. Here is an interesting link regarding the black hole of material which is refused classification. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10128 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10128 A pertinent quote being: With Refused Classification, Australia has a category that is not illegal, but the government would prefer that we thought it was.
- ShardPhoenix 16y ago
  I think he was talking about China.

pmccool 16y ago

I doubt it. Australia has an implied freedom of political communication (per the Lange and Coleman v Power cases). This law is on shaky legal ground already. Blocking entire sites will make it more likely that the law will be struck down. It would also be more politically risky. No doubt they could try - it's technically possible - but I think they wouldn't. I agree that the fact that this law could be abused in such a way is a compelling objection to it.

nl 16y ago
Political sites in Australia have already been refused classification (ie, would be blocked). There was a candidate in the recent South Australian election who ran on an anti-abortion platform who's website was later refused classification. See http://lifenetwork.org.au/_bpost_2642/Australian_Government_censors_anti-abortion_websites http://lifenetwork.org.au/_bpost_2642/Australian_Government_...