The Filter Is Dead: Australian Government Dumps Controversial Filtering Project

[shruman]

"The Filter Is Dead: Australian Government Dumps Controversial Filtering Project

Almost three years ago now, Senator Stephen Conroy stepped up to the plate to deliver a bold new vision. A vision of a filtered, “safer” internet. The plan was met by hostility from internet rights activists, poiticians, internet users, internet service providers and interest groups alike. Tonight, however, the Labor government’s proposed mandatory internet filter is dead.

From the get-go, we made our feelings known about the government’s plan to filter the internet, and neither was the broader population of Australia’s internet users.

The original filter proposition, aired in a 2007 paper on how Labor would ensure the safety of kids online, would have seen the government impose a mandatory “clean feed” on Austraian internet users:

Way back when Kevin Rudd was the Prime Minister, this was the plan:

 

A Rudd Labor Government will require ISPs to offer a ‘clean feed’ internet service to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible by children, such as public libraries.

 

Labor’s ISP policy will prevent Australian children from accessing any content that has been identified as prohibited by ACMA, including sites such as those containing child pornography and X-rated material.

 

Labor will also ensure that the ACMA black list is more comprehensive. It will do so, for example, by liaising with international agencies such as Interpol, Europol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and ISPs to ensure that adequate online protection is provided to Australian children and families.

 

That ACMA blacklist turned out to contain some of the worst of the worst sites on the internet, including but not restricted to child pornography sites and other high-impact content. The list was leaked in 2009, although the government never admitted that it was the actual list. The most concerning thing about the leaked list was the presence of several sites not pertaining to high-impact content that would offend children. A dentist website, for example, was one of the results. That gave way to suspicions that the blacklist wasn’t entirely unfallible.

Add to that the fact that the content set to be filtered was constantly under debate. Would the filter block gambling sites? BDSM or bondage material or so-called “golden showers” as Senator Conroy himself discussed during the filter back-and-forth? We’ll never really know for sure.

Never missing a chance to leap on a popular issue, the Federal Opposition said that they would oppose the filter and everything that it stood for. High-profile members of the IT and business community came out to oppose the filter. In August 2010, Conroy admitted to ARN that the filter would likely never make it through the parliament.

All had been quiet on the filter front for a few months, as Conroy continued to promise “surprises” when it came to the clean feed proposal.

As Conroy and the government quietly worked away on a carefully calculated retreat plan, three internet service providers were working to implement a filter of their own. The ISPs, including Optus and Telstra, worked to deploy a filter that would block the Interpol blacklist — a list containing the very worst and most objectionable material ever to hit the internet.

And yet as the deployment of the Interpol filter came and went, nobody made a sound, nor a protest, nor an angry letter. Nobody cared that child porn was going to be blocked, people cared when they thought it might be more.

Snap back to present day, and Conroy’s office has just issued a statement saying that it will walk away from mandatory internet filtering, and instead urge ISPs to implement the same Interpol filter that ISPs like Telstra and Optus are already running. The statement isn’t live online just yet, but according to the outlets Conroy gave it to ahead of time, the new filtering regime will cover 90 per cent of the population, based on the ISPs that have already agreed to come on board with the plan.

The government isn’t giving ISPs a choice, either. It’s using a section of the Telecommunications Act to compel ISPs to comply with the Interpol blacklist. According to ZDNet, iiNet is one of the ISPs that is already on board.

So that’s it. Australia’s mandatory internet filter is finally — as the Coalition put it — dead, buried and cremated. "

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/11/the-filter-is-dead-australian-government-dumps-controversial-filtering-project/

[Anodyne]

Nice to be able to cross something off my "stuff to get angry about" list...

[qualia]

mandatory data retention still to go. expect labor to view it as a "mandate" should the impossible become a reality after the next election.

[Thegribbs]

Where is this data going to be stored? I can't see mandatory data retention ever being carried out with the current technology. Imagine the electricity, equipment, land and resources required to undertake such a project! I can't imagine any service providers being able to facilitate it, or the government for that matter (especially with their grand goals of a surplus ).

[qualia]

well, you know politicians. ideology trumps practicality with those cunts. believe me, data retention is the next fight. especially with roxon, who thinks government has the right, nay, the obligation to monitor everything everyone does, for ever.

fuck

labor

[Foo]

Step one