Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Internet Filtering: Australia heads further towards totalitarianism

Jump to new
Re: Internet Filtering; Where are the Lefties?

Smurf1976 said:
....... the best of a rather rotten bunch on this one. Greens?
Click to expand...
Oh, please no, not the Greens. If you think we have financial problems now, it's just nothing compared to what the financially illiterate Greens would produce.
 
Re: Internet Filtering; Where are the Lefties?

Julia said:
Oh, please no, not the Greens. If you think we have financial problems now, it's just nothing compared to what the financially illiterate Greens would produce.
Click to expand...
You're preaching to the converted on that one... :D

I'm not sure what their internet censorship policy is but if it's better than Labor then I'll give credit where it's due. Much as they've given me plenty of sleepless nights (literally), I do think the Greens have a positive side and historically at least freedom of speech has been one of them.:2twocents
 
I don't believe in censorship but I do believe in age restricted access to anything that could adversely affect young under-developed minds.

In my mind, no one has the right to restrict my access to anything that is available. I should have the right to filter my own content and decide what I want and don't want to experience.

Content, and/or products (things) that have materialised from the mis treatment of others shouldn't be allowed to have happened in the first place and should be policed well before censorship even becomes an issue.
 
It's not even in yet but already it's being scaled up to include censorship of basically anything the government doesn't want us to see. The worst fears of me and anyone in favour of free speech confirmed.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,24569656-5014239,00.html

Now it's euthanasia and anorexia being censored but how long before it's economic statistics, peak oil, 911 conspiracy theories and anything else the government finds inconvenient at the time? This isn't just about child pornography etc, it's now clearly about outright censorship.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always considered the freedom to say what you think to be a right beyond challenge. Even in packed halls with everyone supposedly there to support one side of a political debate, I and many others have always supported the right of the one or two lone individuals who turned up from the other side to have their say. And they got their say in a polite and respectful manner despite being very much "outsiders".

The way things are going, even having such a meeting will be illegal before much longer. Or at least promoting it via the internet will become impossible.

"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend forever your right to say it". I'm not sure where that quote comes from, but it's a principle we ought to be following in my opinion.:mad:
 
Smurf1976 said:
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend forever your right to say it". I'm not sure where that quote comes from, but it's a principle we ought to be following in my opinion.:mad:
Click to expand...

Totally agree, and this may even prompt me to write my first ever letter to a politician (not that it will acheive anything).

IMO, Aus can no longer critisice China or any other country for censorship or human rights abuses as it would be totally hypocritical
 
Smurf1976 said:
I
Now it's euthanasia and anorexia being censored but how long before it's economic statistics, peak oil, 911 conspiracy theories and anything else the government finds inconvenient at the time? This isn't just about child pornography etc, it's now clearly about outright censorship.
Click to expand...
I'm speechless at this! We need to have the debate about euthanasia.
Who is the Minister to write to? Is it Conroy?
 
The phrase "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" was attributed to Voltaire, but apparently he didn't ever write it.

It appeared in "The Friends of Voltaire" (1906), written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall under the pseudonym Stephen G. Tallentyre.
 
A comment on the situation from a news.com article.
This country has had "clean feeds" on offer by several ISPs for worried parents yet there is barely any take up. The Governments NetAlert software was downloaded 300,000 times in the first week, less the 3 weeks later only 6000 people were still using it, and that cost $84m.
Click to expand...
The govt's drive on this appears to be irrational - so what or who is driving them? What is their real agenda? It is obvious that the kiddie pron angle is a 'Hussein has WMD's' reason. So what is their real reason, it is solely to stop the BAD things from coming down the Internet's pipes or is it more?
 
Looking at the amount of (justifiable) outrage the internet filtering proposal has generated recently in the online media, I think these plans will either be radically altered or scrapped. It would be ironic indeed if Mr Conroy's plans would be defeated through raw unfiltered power of the internet. ;)
 
In Conroy’s muddy waters you'll never know what’s being filtered
Critics of Conroy's Internet filtering say Australians will not be able to find out what the government censors online, and ask: who watches the watchmen?
Andrew Hendry (Computerworld) 28/10/2008 09:30:00
Click to expand...

from PC World: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;355409327;pp;1;fp;4;fpid;762456

goes on to say:

“Every organisation with an axe to grind and any kind of political clout will be lobbying the government to extend the blacklist to block access to whatever it is that pisses them off. They don’t even tell the operators of a site that it has been blacklisted, which as a practical matter means there is no appeal for these decisions. In the case of a false positive it is really dependent on somebody discovering it by chance,” he said.
 
Did anyone else have trouble accessing news.com.au and yahoo finance this morning ?

I already notice things disappearing off the net.
You find clues of people talking about a <thing>, but the actual <thing> has disappeared from the net.

It's like ancient history books which refer to works which have since being lost.

-----------
I seem to recall some deal being done with Family First Party not long after the election or was that an independant.
 
deadset said:
Did anyone else have trouble accessing news.com.au and yahoo finance this morning ?

I already notice things disappearing off the net.
You find clues of people talking about a <thing>, but the actual <thing> has disappeared from the net.

It's like ancient history books which refer to works which have since being lost.

-----------
I seem to recall some deal being done with Family First Party not long after the election or was that an independant.
Click to expand...

I don't think Internet filtering is operational right now. It must be your internet connection or yahoo service problem.
 
I was just about to post the link on that story from the Courier Mail.
Some damn democracy we live in. The Courier Mail are running a poll on whether people agree with the filter. So far 91% disagree. The 9% apparently agreeing probably use the internet so seldom they won't worry if speeds are slowed by up to 80% as suggested in the C. Mail story.

No, Prawn, I have not been honoured with any reply from Senator Conroy.
Didn't expect it and doubt you did either. Just hoped if his office was flooded with objections it might make them reconsider this totalitarian move.

Clearly not. Ah, so reassuring to have a government who knows what's best for us.

The only thing I can think of at this stage is for us to contact our ISP's and suggest that if they take part in this, we will remove our subscriptions.
 
Julia said:
The only thing I can think of at this stage is for us to contact our ISP's and suggest that if they take part in this, we will remove our subscriptions.
Click to expand...

I even went so far as to say in my email to Conroy that if the government goes ahead with this I will be moving overseas so they wont have my taxes.

So much for a democracy....

As I have said 1000 times, as soon as a party is voted in they do what they want. They dont actually care about anyone but themselves. Even the independents are supporting this.
 
I forwarded my email to Conroy and my local member again. Not much else that can be done unfortunately. I have always maintained Aus is not a true democracy... :mad:
 
They cannot be unaware of how public opinion is against this.
They monitor the media all the time.

I can only think that they've done some sort of deal with Senator Fielding of Family First that he will vote for their legislation only if they put this ridiculous filter on the net.
 
I was in Berlin on the weekend...amazing history...awesome tour and tour guide. Saw the memorial to the Nazi book burning:

"Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.")

Of course you don't need to burn books (information) to affect culture, you just need to stop people reading them.
 
Yes this move can only result in less masturbation and hence more crime, anger, rage, frustration, lonliness, disappointment, sadness and psychosis..
 

Similar threads

M
Australia secretly censors Wikileaks Internet censorship list
Replies
2
Views
5K
doctorj
doctorj
A
Proposed New Website Blocking Laws
Replies
4
Views
4K
Kimosabi
Kimosabi
Top