Australia's Internet Filter Switches On In July

[TheRealCJ]

I don't want to live in this country anymore.

The worst part is that I can't complain about it to my friends because they'll all just twist my words to make it look like I'm a pedophile.

Uh... dude? Don't say "Make me look like a pedophile" while using that avatar. Could give people the wrong idea.

 

[Pat8u]

Its not Like anyone who does legal stuff will notice it will only be illeagel stuff being censored such as child porn and etc
ALSO I am australian and I offically don't give a shit

 

[Pat8u]

Since when did free speech protect child porn?

Just forget about the child porn, its irrelevant.

The Government has been given a tool that has the ability to threaten free speech, right now they may be using it to stop a criminal activity, but there's nothing stopping them from going even further and censoring things that are perfectly legal or silencing their opposition. And if history has taught us anything, it's that the government loves to screw over the people for their own personal gain.

they are only banning child pornography and other bad stuff like that nothing to bad

 

[mrmash]

It's already been pointed out multiple times in this thread, but no one seems to really comprehend what is being said. I'll try to make it as clear as I can when I say this.

Gillard has nothing to do with this blacklist, and the government is not responsible for the enforcement of this blacklist. This whole thing is being dealt with by the internet providers. The government has always, and will always have lists of blacklisted and flagged websites. ACMA compiles all of these lists and allows police and security organisations to use them where they see fit.

This filter has nothing to do with the Parliament of Australia. ACMA is a subordinate body of the Australian government, and would be maintained by the same people no matter who was in government.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Gillard and the Labor Party at the moment, but this is most certainly not one of them.

I'll repeat - the Parliament of Australia has nothing at all to do with this.

Sure, the government could block Telstra and Optus from doing this, but it seems like you lot think government intervention of any sort will result in the demise of Australia into a totalitarian and careless regime.

 

[Dekkaz]

I'm against censorship but in the direct effort to stop child pornography sites I am for it.

 

[Jameseh]

There is nothing wrong with this at all. Those who don't look at these things it doesn't affect them and if they do you've got much more serious problems with their life. Its not going to escalate into some web wide ban on anything and everything.

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

Hey Yahtzze tell us again how great of a country you live in again hahaha...

 

[InfiniteSingularity]

Okay, so who decides which specific sites are blocked? Biased government officials? I don't think so. I don't trust them to make the right decisions.

This is the "stop the boats" solution to people smuggling

 

[MattAn24]

WHY the hell are people so against this? They're blocking CHILD ABUSE/PORN WEBSITES. This is a GOOD THING.

Ugh..

 

[XxSummonerxX]

I can't disagree with this since it's censorship is quite reasonable at this time. Unless anyone here wanted to go look at child abuse sites.

so its just stopping child porn? thats good so it wont affect me and like everyone else in the country.

Hi there! Let me enlighten you with the earlier Australian blacklist, as uncovered by Wikileaks! Here's an article about it: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/19/1237054961100.html

Allow me to quote the best part: But about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

I love the smell of government censorship in the morning!

obviously thats all bad and wrong but if they just block child porn then thats all good with me.

i would think the blocked sites should be on a registry that anyone can view. i did hear that some dentists website was block and he didn even know. i wonder who or how sites are added to the list to be blocked.

Personally I don't see what's so threatening to the unprepared mind of the sheeple about online poker sites, youtube links, gay or straight porn, wikipedia, euthanasia, christian sites, a tour operator and a dentist.

In short, government censorship is bad IN ALL CASES because it goes from noble intent (blocking child porn) to ridiculous totalitarianism (blocking porn and wikipedia).

Let me quote the interesting part.

This was from 2009. The law that was refused, not this optional bit.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Boy I bet it's lonely in your little world.

What gave you that impression?

I just wouldn't say anything bad about any of the governments. They have the military and all. So, as a result, I support anything they go for.

And we might as well get rid of piracy and pornography while we're at it.

They really should make this kind of thing illegal if it isn't already.

The government(And organizations like this) should have every right to block websites from user access.

So they should have the right to censor their opposition from speaking?

Of course.

If the government had the ability to stop criminals from communicating with each other, organized crime would be a thing of the past. And any other crime would be relatively manageable. So yeah, I don't see what is wrong with hindering organized crime.

Okay, 100% guaranteed to be trolling now. No question. Had me going there for a second.

I'm not trolling. What gave you that idea?

Obvious troll is obvious.

EDIT: Oh, and my opinion... these CP websites should not be blocked, they should be completely taken down and abolished, the reason they're being blocked is because they need a decent excuse to START filtering out the bits of internet they don't like. It's not going to stop here.

 

[Extravagance]

They really should make this kind of thing illegal if it isn't already.

The government(And organizations like this) should have every right to block websites from user access.

And there we have the anti-free speech argument. The gouvernment and various organisations have no right to restrict internet access to anything. They have the right to arrest someone for commiting an illegal action by viewing a website (child porn is pretty much the only example), but it is a restriction of various forms of Human Rights to block internet access to what a select group think is 'moral'. It's also pretty idiotic.

 

[SextusMaximus]

WHY the hell are people so against this? They're blocking CHILD ABUSE/PORN WEBSITES. This is a GOOD THING.

Ugh..

Because it's not going to stop there, the Government will start banning sites that aren't illegal, just not convenient for them.

 

[nitemarez]

Anon is about to clusterfuck the entire continent of Australia, or at least their ISP's.

 

[SuperShadowAce]

I hope everyone but Croshaw cancels their internet in protest.

 

[DrScoobs]

YAY CENSORSHIP!

 

[hecticpicnic]

I feel bad for Australians they already have to pay a fair amount for internet compared to America.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Looks like Telstra isn't as committed to the filter as they said they were. [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/hackers-put-telstra-in-filter-bind/story-e6frgakx-1226081618113]

 

[Madara XIII]

Thank goodness.

After a while I hope we can get this in the U.S. too so that we can phase out internet pornography and piracy.

B-b-but That's what the internet is for. =(

You mean to tell me that Avenue Q is wrong?

<youtube=QKNnwLL991c&feature=related>

 

[Nimbus]

Ima just throw this down right here for everyone who agrees with this stupid filter:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html