No doubt many of you have read or heard about what our Communication minister Stephen Conroy plans to do in relation to filtering our internet here in Australia. I, like many people, are outraged at this blatant attack on our freedom of expression.
This is ridiculous. There are so many issues with this proposal it’s hard not to just rage quit this country IF this goes ahead. The plan is to create a ‘blacklist’ of website deemed inappropriate by a ‘board of representatives’. The public will not be privy to this list, and if your site gets put on it, you can’t get it off. It’s opt in, my friends, not opt out. The leaked preliminary list is potted with incorrect sites and poorly researched bannings. One canteen ladies site was placed on the list due to it having teen in the site. This is unacceptable. Another issue is the filter will reduce the speed at which we receive information. It is guaranteed to slow down our bandwidth.
I link to this article by marcus Westbury, and he talks about how this filter will affect the arts.
http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2010/01/22/internet-censorship-and-the-arts/
He says a lot of things that ring true, and further ranting by me would just re-iterating what he says.
I hope that if you see me around campus I will have a petition you can sign. BEWARE though, if you have signed an online petition IT DOES NOT COUNT. The Government will only accept a written petition. So sign up my friends, and lets take this proposed filter to the ground, out it in a chokehold and say FUCK CENSORSHIP.
Stay classy, internets.
liketheashesofflags
