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Austrialia censors 90% of web censorship plan to avoid "unnecessary debate"
- jlcgull 16y agoAustralia, is turning into an e-Tibet ... Get ready for millions of innocent websites dying at the hands of OberFuhrer Robert McClelland. Yeah, that statement may sound over-hyped today, but come talk to me a year after that thing gets signed into law. Aussies have gone soft, in the balls (they were already soft in the head -- which was the only good thing keeping democracy alive in Australia until now). edit: an attempt at preventing godwin's law invocation and a visit from the anti-defamation league. ;-)
- catch23 16y ago... or China! Google will have to create an offshore website in New Zealand for uncensored search results.
- tkahn6 16y agoI think you will understand how offensive and unnecessary your first statement is after looking at this photo: http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/images/auschwitz-corpses.jpg http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/images/auschwitz-corpses.j...
- jlcgull 16y agoI think you will understand how analogy works by watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fI3KEgy6c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fI3KEgy6c edited to add: Beware, for history repeats itself. Just because heinous crimes were documented in the past is no guarantee that they will not be repeated by spineless authoritarians.
- tkahn6 16y agoAh, I seem to have given you more credit than you deserve. I watched the video but it's not related to any part of this discussion. Just because an analogy has been made does not make it a good one.
- jlcgull 16y agoThe only relevant reply, unfortunately, was not even in reply to my OP !!! http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543020 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543020
- lkjhgbvbhnjmk 16y agoYes Australians had the decency to slowly wipe out the indigenous people out of sight over a century rather than being all teutonic and efficient about it.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- zmmmmm 16y agoThe meta-issues (how the plan is being negotiated and managed) are almost as bad as the actual issue (censorship, privacy invasion) here. There are a lot of people who can come to terms with the idea that there is at least some kind of content that might, in some circumstances, be worth blocking or monitoring on the internet (I'm not saying this is my position). But not this plan, not the way it is being done - zero transparency, zero accountability, zero consultation, zero acknowledgement of real criticisms by honest well intentioned people. If the government wants to do this then they need to be at their most open and transparent, their most considerate of well reasoned objections.
- peterwwillis 16y agoi love how they're openly stating it's confusing and controversial so they're going to keep it secret so no one can object before it's completely finished. this will become a barbara streisand pretty quick.
- fungi 16y ago> they're luv how "they" are a friken bureaucrat... like it's any of their business what is and is not debated and discussed in democracy. have spent many years in commonwealth and state bureaucracies and have never heard anyone even entertain the idea that silencing debate (although in my view that is often the point) would be used as the publicly stated reason for censoring or denying an FOI.
- Gianteye 16y agoI often wonder what is at the heart of massive snooping/censorship schemes like these. I'm still waiting on the data that supports a link between violent media and violent people, sexually explicit pictures and acts of sexual violence, and transparency sponsoring open debate leading to anarchy.
- beilabs 16y agoI'm a European citizen, I've lived in China for a number of years behind the "Great Firewall" which is easily circumvented. The last thing I expected when I moved to Australia was to be behind the "Great Barrier Firewall". Not sure if many reading this realize that there is an election coming up in the coming weeks, the current government probably does not want to give ammunition to the opposition about this whole sordid affair. Stephen Conroys office has spent an obscene amount on why he thinks the Australian filter is a good thing. Any kind of back-down or debate on the issue would just go against the current regime. My only hope is that if the party goes back into power after August that this firewall business will die a slow death.
- dublinclontarf 16y agoSorry you're mistaken, the Great Firewall of China USED to be easily circumvented, now the only method is with a paid VPN connection (or a very kind person to share their bandwidth). Even Tor's been taken down.
- c1sc0 16y agoVPN? That's still easy in my book. Probably easier than setting up Tor. When I Was in Shanghai in May, Tor still worked.
- beilabs 16y ago@DublinClontarf, yeah, I used to use TOR hosted on a private slice, but thats also insecure. I'd use a paid VPN to buy pass it these days. Btw, I used to live in Clontarf for quite a while..
- dublinclontarf 16y agoWas it East point business park that you worked?
- beilabs 16y agoYeah, for about a year...then moved over here to Oz. Catch me on twitter @beilabs
- spamizbad 16y agoWhat is the Australian government's political rational behind implementing this plan? I highly doubt Australia has a contingent of voters who demand Internet censorship, and unlike China it's not like there's some sort of regime that needs to purge unfriendly ideas from circulating. This whole endeavor seems completely unnecessary. Any Australians know what the heck is behind this?
- lkjhgbvbhnjmk 16y agoIt's a hung parliament with the balance of power held by a small group of bible thumping right wingers. They wish to show to their voters that they are doing something to fight the waves of terrorism and filth that are warping the tiny minds of vunerable australian children. And to distract anyone from finding out about their affairs, dodgy real estate deals and child abuse.
- brc 16y agoThat is an entirely inaccurate description of Australian politics. Bible thumping rarely appears in Australian political life. The current Prime Minister is a declared aetheist, and they can get just about any laws through with the support of the left-wing Green party.
- lkjhgbvbhnjmk 16y agoThe communications minister in charge of the filtering is a follower of the famous Jewish zombie.
- froo 16y agoIt's a combination of Stephen Conroy's good intentions (wanting to block child porn) mixed with bad advice he's receiving (mandatory filter). Add to that a dash of stubbornness (he refuses to back down, even though he's been shown better solutions) and probably just a hint of corruption (the whole channel 7 broadcasting fee debacle) and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.
- bennysaurus 16y ago
- Yaa101 16y agobye bye democracy, it was nice to have known you...
- jdub 16y agoNote that this document and story are actually about a recent EU-style data retention proposal, not the internet filtering / web censorship policy (which has been bumbling along for quite a while now).
- yewweitan 16y agoWell, as an Aussie myself, I'd certainly like to see this issue raised a little more, especially with the election coming round on 21st Aug. Let's hope movements like Election Wire http://www.youtube.com/youthscape http://www.youtube.com/youthscape will change things.
- jlcgull 16y agoUpvoted. Seems like a positive way make dent on the incumbent censor-happy morons. Good luck Australia!
- magma 16y agoI'm curious as to how the elections are going to change this policy. As suggested in the thread, they are trying to keep things quiet until the elections. However what happens if the Labor party loses. Is the opposition going to support this as well?
- sown 16y agoWho keeps making these rules?
- gscott 16y agoThe Prison Warden makes the rules... the prisoners live by them!
- fungi 16y agothe ALP. the real question is who has their ear, for internet censorship i would say it's the christian lobby, for this logging crap would say both state and commonwealth law enforcement agencies (chiefly AFP???). the latter certainly have form (e.g. http://www.theage.com.au/national/investigations/private-spies-hired-by-police-20081125-6hh7.html http://www.theage.com.au/national/investigations/private-spi...)
- jakevoytko 16y agoThe citizens of Australia should obviously skip straight to the Molotov Cocktails to avoid more "unnecessary debate"!
- luke_f 16y agoThe filter can't be about anything other than shoring up political support. Hopefully the incumbents pick up a few seats in the election and they'll be able to drop the legislation. We love to call politicians stupid, but they're not that dumb. It's been pointed out ad-nauseum that the filter wont achieve the stated purpose (eradication of online child porn). The rationale has moved to making sure kiddies don't 'stumble' upon the internet nasties. More sensible legislation would be to mandate that ISPs offer filtered & unfiltered connections. Individual households could then make their own choices.