All you need to know that the Australian Governments Censorship Plan is Bollocks (and more)

What we know so far

The Australian Labor Party has announced it intends force ISPs to censor the Internet. This is contrary to the current practice whereby consumers have the choice to filter their Internet connections either through home PC filters or subscribing to a filtered ISP. The government intends to censor Refused Classification content, almost all of which is legal to view.

The government contracted Enex Test Lab to conduct a 'live pilot' of ISP filtering technologies, in which DBCDE Minister Stephen Conroy insisted the trial remain opt-in to test the performance load of a mandatory ISP filter at all ISPs in Australia. Conroy confirmed in Senate Estimates on Monday 19 October that he received the report on the weekend prior. The trial report was released on Tuesday 15 December 2009 and proclaimed a success. Senator Conroy will attempt to introduce legislation in the form of amendments to the Broadcasting Act just before the 2010 election.

Why is it a bad idea?

1. The ideals of a representative democratic society oppose censorship;
2. Australians have demonstrated they do not want it;
3. There are plenty of alternatives available (including ISPs that voluntarily offer filtering services);
4. The Government failed to advise the filters would be mandatory for all prior to the election;
5. Blacklisted sites are kept secret from the Australian public;
6. Any blacklist would need to be distributed to all ISPs in Australia, and will provide anyone a concentrated list of the 'worst of the worst' web pages when leaked;
7. It is easily circumvented or bypassed;
8. It introduces delay and declined performance in internet traffic;
9. It will increase the cost of broadband;
10. Filtering products incorrectly block legitimate traffic;
11. It introduces another source of failure and Internet outages;
12. The filter is proposed to filter HTTP traffic – which is not all protocols or even the majority of Internet traffic;
13. Those viewing child pornography will take additional steps to ensure their traffic is better protected (encryption, anonymisers such as TOR) to avoid censorship, which will hinder law enforcement;
14. It will give parents a false sense of security regarding online content;
15. It will introduce a level of insecurity in “secure” (SSL) Internet connections (if HTTPS sessions are filtered);
16. Costs spent in implementing the filters can be better spent elsewhere;
17. Children aware of the filter will deliberately attempt to find filtered sites and bypass the filter;
18. Top Internet Service Providers oppose the proposal;
19. Shifting parental responsibility to the ISPs/Government does nothing to prevent societal problems;
20. Other countries have blacklisted political critics where mandatory filtering has been imposed; and
21. There are too many individual URLs on the web, that any blacklist containing only a couple of thousand URLs will prove highly insufficient in an attempt to protect people from inappropriate web content;

What can I do?

• Write to your local member and Senators House Of Representatives Contact List Senate Contact List;
• Send your letters to Senator Conroy (by email at minister at dbcde.gov.au, and postal mail to Hon Stephen Conroy, Suite MG70, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600);
• Prepare to evade the filter using any of many easy methods. (Dead link as of 2009-11-30)
• Write media releases;
• Write letters to the editor, call in to talk-back radio;
• Contribute to the new blog at the dbcde – http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_business/industry_development/digital_economy/future_directions_blog/topics/minister_tanners_welcome?90046_result_page=11
• Spread awareness (talk about it with your friends);
• Sign the GetUp campaign, Be careful about donations to GetUp! Things are not as they seem: GetUp!? GET ACCOUNTABLE – Dont' steal money from Anti-Censorship Donors
• Sign the Taking IT Global petition, the petitiononline.com petition, and the Waking Giant petition;
• Tell the Australian Labor Party what you think of this policy;
• Get your anti-censorship T-Shirt;
• Join anti-Cleanfeed Facebook groups;
• Find more media articles about the filtering and update this Wiki entry (the more we can educate others, the better);
• Attend protests; and
• Remember this policy when you are at the polling booth in 2010.

Chronology and Media Coverage

2006

• March 21, 2006 – National Library Archive – Beazley Media Statement
• March 21, 2006 – National Library Archive – Beazley Radio Interview, 3AW
• April 18, 2006 – Giants say no to porn filter trial
• May 26, 2006 – NetAlert – A study on Server Based Internet Filters
• June 21, 2006 – Liberal Government announces free porn-filtering software

2007

• March 8, 2007 – Turkey bans Youtube
• August 20, 2007 – Howard government releases free PC level filters/NetAlert Program
• September 20, 2007 – Howard Government looks to implement ISP level filter for "Illegal Material"
• November 25, 2007 – Australian Labor Party wins Federal Election
• November 29, 2007 – Conroy Retains Broadband portfolio
• December 31, 2007 – Conroy Announces 'Cleanfeed' – for the first time it is revealed that the filter will block pornography and illegal material. This announcement is notable in that it says that you can "opt out" for uncensored access to the Internet.

2008

• January 1, 2008 – Nanny Rudd censors the internet, Courier Mail ("KEVIN Rudd's fledgling government has just made its first major policy blunder. And it's a doozy.")
• January 2, 2008 – EFA Attacks Clean-Feed Proposal
• January 2, 2008 – Australia's plans to filter the Internet under fire
• January 17, 2008 – No sex please, we're Labor – ZDNet
• February 2008 – ACMA Report on Development in Internet Filters – 1st Report
• February 17, 2008 – Labor Government says the NetAlert free filters are a dud
• February 26, 2008 – Filtering trials in Tasmania announced
• Unknown date – Enex test completed
• July 28, 2008 – Minister welcomes advances in internet filtering technology
• October 1, 2008 – No opt-out filtering
• October 20, 2008 – Conroy talks about Filter in Senate
• October 23, 2008 – Australian censorship minister tries to censor critic: time to go Conroy, Inquisitr
• October 24, 2008 – Filtering out the fury: how government tried to gag web censor critics, The Age
• October 24, 2008 – Conroy office must stop bullying critics of labor internet 'clean feed' censorship plan – Liberal Party of Australia
• October 24, 2008 – Cheap tricks not the right response on internet filtering, Crikey
• October 24, 2008 – 'Appalled' opposition hits back at Conroy’s Internet censorship, PCWorld
• October 27, 2008 – SAGE-AU calls for open talk on Net censorship – SAGE-AU
• October 28, 2008 – Google, Yahoo and Microsoft align against state censorship
• October 29, 2008 – Australia's compulsory internet filtering 'costly, ineffective' – The Courier-Mail
• October 29, 2008 – Is Censorship ever ok? – Sunrise Soapbox
• On or about October 29, 2008 – Sunrise debate on Censorship with "All-Stars" – Sunrise, Channel 7
• October 30, 2008 – Filter to cause World Wide Wait – The Courier-Mail
• October 30, 2008 – ISP-level content filtering won't work: Bigpond, iiNet, Internode – ZDNet
• October 31, 2008 – Protest logged on internet filter for illegal sites – The Courier Mail
• October 31, 2008 – Web filter 'needed' to protect kids from porn – The Courier Mail
• November 3, 2008 – Hands off the Internet, ARN
• November 3, 2008 – How to easily bypass Australia's internet filters for free – Sydney Morning Herald
• November 4, 2008 – Top 5 reasons to fight government ISP filtering – APC Magazine
• November 4, 2008 – Rethink needed on web censorship, The Border Watch
• November 4, 2008 – We don't want Stephen Conroy in our bedrooms, The Courier Mail
• November 7, 2008 – SAGE-AU poses three-step safe Net plan for families – SAGE-AU
• November 9, 2008 – UserFriendly.org Cartoon Strip for 9 November 2008 – Userfriendly.org
• November 10, 2008 – Filter advocates need to check their facts, ABC
• November 10, 2008 – Government uploads hypocrisy with internet censorship, The Age
• November 10, 2008 – Internet filtering? Just say no, IT Wire
• November 10, 2008 – Federal Government announces ISP Filtering Live Pilot – Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
• November 11, 2008 – Senator Ludlam questions Senator Conroy about Mandatory Filtering – The Senate (This announcement is notable in that Senator Conroy neglected to answer any of the questions asked by Senator Ludlam)
• November 11, 2008 – Net censorship plan backlash, Sydney Morning Herald (notable in that Michael Malone, managing director of iiNet is quoted as saying "This is the worst Communications Minister we've had in the 15 years since the [internet] industry has existed.")
• November 11, 2008 – Conroy seeks ISPs for filter trial, The Age
• November 11, 2008 – Internet censorship pilot to go ahead, Whirlpool
• November 11, 2008 – Conroy calls for filter pilot volunteers, ZDNet
• November 11, 2008 – Largest Aussie ISP Agrees To "Ridiculous" Net-Filter Trial, Slashdot
• November 11, 2008 – Govt urged to provide internet filtering details, ABC
• November 12, 2008 – Greens accuse Conroy of fudging facts over content filter trials, ComputerWorld
• November 12, 2008 – Conroy coy on filtered web content, AustralianIT
• November 13, 2008 – Internet filter to block 10,000-plus "unwanted" sites, Courier Mail
• November 14, 2008 – Internet filtering to cause businesses grief, SmartCompany
• November 18, 2008 – ISP filtering, Australia Talks
• November 18, 2008 – Your Turn: Censor this!, The Age
• November 18, 2008 – Fireside chats in the 21st century, ABC Opinion
• November 21, 2008 – Rudd will need stiff upper lip, Sunday Times
• November 23, 2008 – Too many holes in Rudd Government internet filter, Sunday Telegraph
• November 24, 2008 – Cleaning out the Net, Hobart Mercury
• November 24, 2008 – UQ Business School IT Manager comments on internet filtering, UQ News Online
• November 25, 2008 – Labor's Arbitrary Internet Filter Plan Misguided and Deeply Unpopular, The Liberal Party of Australia
• November 26, 2008 – Aussie government muffs plans for internet filtering, The Register
• November 27, 2008 – Activists target Rudd's net censorship plans, Sydney Morning Herald
• November 28, 2008 – Children's welfare groups slam net filters, Brisbane Times
• December 4, 2008 – Protest over Australian plans to filter websites, Herald Sun
• December 5, 2008 – Govt's web censorship will hurt economy, group says, ABC News
• December 5, 2008 – Aussie anti-censorship protests get cash, The Inquirer
• December 9, 2008 – Labor plan to censor internet in shreds, The Age
• December 9, 2008 – Telstra says no to filtering trials, The Australian
• December 9, 2008 – Government launches blog asking for feedback on plans for web filter, Herald Sun
• December 9, 2008 – The 10 sins of Senator Conroy, the blogger, Dan Warne, APC Mag
• December 10, 2008 – Hundreds protest net filtering on Conroy’s new blog, IT News
• December 11, 2008 – Australians caught in child porn ring – Acting assistant commissioner indicates p2p used, "difficult" to filter at ISP level., ABC Radio
• December 12, 2008 – New hurdle for net censorship, Sydney Morning Herald
• December 12, 2008 – Public protests against Internet filtering tomorrow, Whirlpool

Please refer to the OCAU Wiki entry on Australian Internet Censorship for more media coverage not yet documented in this Wiki entry.

ISP's positions

Telstra/Bigpond, Internode, iiNet, Spin, Netspace and Adam Internet have spoken out against the Cleanfeed proposal.

Michael Malone, managing director of iiNet had stated iiNet will participate in the "ridiculous" Government filtering trial (source). Since then, iiNet have now decided to no longer be involved in the trials: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/99484,dbcde-wouldn%E2%80%99t-agree-to-blind-filter-trial-iinet.aspx

NetXP and WebShield have been so far been the only ISPs to publicly support the filter (source 1, source 2)

For more information, see Cleanfeed ISP Positions.

Links

• Overclockers Australia Wiki page about Australian Internet Filtering
• Electronic Frontiers Australia
• No Clean Feed.com
• Somebody Think of the Children.com
• System Administrators Guild of South Australia
• Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
• Keep Your Filter Off Our Internet (run by Australian Web Industry Association)
• anti-filter.info Dead Link (28/03/09)
• The MP Score-Card
• http://fm2000.netzblick.de/filter-c.php
• ACMA's Internet Content Filtering Trial Report

Online Forum Discussions

• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 62 (All posts) Dec 16 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 61 (All posts) Dec 5 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 60 (All posts) Nov 23 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 59 (All posts) Nov 7 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 58 (All posts) Oct 26 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 57 (All posts) Oct 14 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 56 (All posts) Sep (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 55 (All posts) Sep 28 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 54 (All posts) Sep 13 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 53 (All posts) Sep 3 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 52 (All posts) Aug 21 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 51 (All posts) Aug 6 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 50 (All posts) Jul 24 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 49 (All posts) Jul 14 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 48 (All posts) Jun 29 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 47 (All posts) Jun 15 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 46 (All posts) Jun 02 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 45 (All posts) May 13 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 44 (All posts) May 04 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 43 (All posts) Apr 24 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 42 (All posts) Apr 16 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 41 (All posts) Apr 07 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 40 (All posts) Apr 02 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 39 (All posts) Mar 31 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 38 (All posts) Mar 29 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 37 (All posts) Mar 27 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 36 (All posts) Mar 26 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 35 (All posts) Mar 23 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 34 (All posts) Mar 20 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 33 (All posts) Mar 19 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 32 (All posts) Mar 17 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 31 (All posts) Mar 10 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 30 (All posts) Feb 26 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 29 (All posts) Feb 20 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 28 (All posts) Feb 17 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 27 (All posts) Feb 13 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 26 (All posts) Feb 05 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 25 (All posts) Jan 29 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 24 (All posts) Jan 24 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 23 (All posts) Jan 14 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 22 (All posts) Jan 07 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 21 (All posts) Jan 04 (2009)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 20 (All posts) Dec 28 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 19 (All posts) Dec 23 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 18 (All posts) Dec 16 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 17 (All posts) Dec 11 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 16 (All posts) Dec 05 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 15 (All posts) Dec 02 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 14 (All posts) Nov 27 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 13 (All posts) Nov 22 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 12 (All posts) Nov 18 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 11 (All posts) Nov 14 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 10 (All posts) Nov 12 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 9 (All posts) Nov 09 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 8 (All posts) Nov 05 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 7 (All posts) Nov 04 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 6 (All posts) Nov 02 (2008)
• ISP Level Content Filtering Part 5 (All posts) Oct 31 (2008)
• ISP-level Filtering Discussion Part 4 (All posts) Oct 29 (2008)
• ISP-level Filtering Discussion Part 3 (All posts) Oct 28 (2008)
• ISP-level Filtering Discussion Part 2 (All posts) Oct 24 (2008)
• What Happened to ISP Level Filtering? (All posts) Apr 30 (2008)

Other Wikis

• Australian Internet Filtering – OCAU Wiki
• Electronic Freedom Project includes score card of MPs

Audio Links

• Conroy on Radio National's Media Report – 30 October 2008
• Mark Newton on Triple J

Letter Templates

• frankf's letter to Mark Dreyfus
• Mark Newton's letter to Kate Ellis
• Mark Newton's letter to Senator Xenophon
• Mark Newton's followup letter to Kate Ellis
• Rhys Aronson to Malcolm Turnbull
• Rhett Kipps' letter to the Prime Minister
• Letter from Elias Bizannes to Senators
• Ben's letters to local MP.

Please report responses received to the MP Score Card; this will allow everyone to better understand what support is like for this proposal in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Remember – politicians need to represent the people or they'll be out of a job. Writing them letters makes them aware of the number of voters they stand to lose if they retain their position.

Facebook Groups
Show your support by joining these groups (Member numbers are accurate as of 11 November 2008):

• No Australian Internet Censorship – 36,711 Members
• We Won't Accept It – No To Mandatory Internet Censorship In Australia – 6,204 Members
• I DO NOT Support Australia Implementing MANDATORY Internet Censorship!!! – 4,926 Members
• NO CLEAN FEED – 3,822 Members
• Against the Great Firewall of Australia – 3,373 Members
• FFS Rudd, Don't Censor The Internet!!! – 1,281 Members
• Australians Against The National Filter Plan – 1,067 Members
• Australian ISP filtering plan is stupid! – 831 Members
• Australians against Labor's Internet censorship plans – 732 Members
• DON'T LET THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT CENSOR THE INTERNET! – 577 Members
• No Net Censorship in Australia – 377 Members
• Say NO to Australia's Internet Filters – 168 Members
• Individuals AGAINST de facto Federal Labor censorship of the internet – 82 Members
• Brisbane Against Censorship – 39 Members
• No censorship of the Internet in Australia – 13 Members
• GetUp!? GET ACCOUNTABLE – Dont' steal money from Anti-Censorship Donors – 5 Members

Quotes

“When governments start covering the eyes and ears of the whole nation, however, there is a real problem. We only need to look at those governments that have taken it to the extreme and burnt books to understand that. But there are more subtle ways to inhibit the flow of ideas that we need to be just as alert to.” – Kate Lundy, Australian Labor Party Senator. – http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/29/1059244609141.html.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." – Benjamin Franklin

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." – Rabbi Daniel Lapin

"A censor is an expert in cutting remarks. A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to." – Dr. Laurence Peter

"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship." – George Bernard Shaw

"I think censorship is evil, Andrew. It's the beginning of the Big Brother state, and if you start censoring matters and facts from people, it's an easy step to censor all sorts of things and they don’t know what is going on." – Donn Chipp, former Minister for Customs and Excise (covered censorship) – http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1730839.htm

"Don’t shrink from a new technology just because it may be subject to criminal abuse. Exploit its strengths, while controlling its weaknesses. This will be the way to survive in an increasingly competitive world." – Dr P N Grabosky – http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/chpornography/

"The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." – John Gilmore

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up." – Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

"Implementing system-wide solutions is potentially complex, expensive and may have reliability gaps." – ACMA Spokesperson, The Australian Newspaper, 01/05/2009

via whirlpool.net.au

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