Thread: Internet Censorship - again

I attended a public forum in Dubbo today on telecommunications with Senator Conroy present and speaking.

In it he agreed to answer questions on internet censorship, but when I did so he launched into his usual spiel about those who oppose it supporting child pornography.

He did admit that he was copping a lot of flak about it, but claimed that it was supported by the vast majority of Australians (seems to be ignoring the SMH poll). What he either does not realise or is also ignoring is that it is not him that is mostly copping the flak from overseas, but Australia as a whole.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I attended a public forum in Dubbo today on telecommunications with Senator Conroy present and speaking.

In it he agreed to answer questions on internet censorship, but when I did so he launched into his usual spiel about those who oppose it supporting child pornography.

He did admit that he was copping a lot of flak about it, but claimed that it was supported by the vast majority of Australians (seems to be ignoring the SMH poll). What he either does not realise or is also ignoring is that it is not him that is mostly copping the flak from overseas, but Australia as a whole.



John

Political "speak" John .Doesn't it crap ya? they never answer any question that you ask. Maybe we need some more like " Dad Rudd MP Remember Steele Rudd ?
Cheers,
John ( disco )

Originally Posted by Disco44

............ Maybe we need some more like " Dad Rudd MP Remember Steele Rudd ?
Cheers,
John ( disco )

Yes

John

I found this article the other day and I think the analogy works beautifully.


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Conroy abandons speed hump plans for Australia's freeways
aturner | December 21, 2009

In the face of a significant public backlash, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has backed down on plans to install speed humps on every Australian freeway.

Last week Senator Conroy said he was confident that placing speed humps every 100 metres on all Australian freeways would protect children - reducing accidents by 100 percent with a "negligible" impact on traffic congestion and travel times. The plan was supported by traffic management trials which had only been conducted in suburban back streets.

The plan to throttle Australia's road transport system was slammed by critics as flawed, unworkable, easily bypassed, politically motivated and open to abuse, as reported in the media on Friday.

After listening to public concern over the mandatory speed hump plan, Senator Conroy today abandoned the concept in favour of public education campaigns and better policing.

"Over the weekend I've realised that I don't actually know that much about traffic management and it might be best to listen to the experts," Senator Conroy said.

"I realise that certain segments of the community were keen on the idea of mandatory speed humps, using them as a tool to control everywhere Australians go and everything they see. Such a plan is not acceptable in a democratic country and would make Australia an international laughing stock."

Rather than waste the time and money already invested in the mandatory speed hump plan, Senator Conroy has decided to apply the exact same concept to Australia's internet access - introducing mandatory ISP-level internet content filtering for all Australians. He has ignored criticisms from networking experts and consumer advocacy groups that the mandatory internet filtering plan is just as unworkable as speed humps on the freeways.

"There are a lot of analogies between Australia's road system and its broadband internet network," Senator Conroy said. "Both are critical infrastructure, vital to the nation's economy. Both require significant investment and long-term planning, driven by experts in the field. Neither should be manipulated for short-term political gain at the expense of the nation's future."

"The difference is that your average man on the street can understand how foolish the speed hump idea is, but if we apply the same concept to Australia's internet access most people will blindly accept it because they don't understand how ill-conceived and unworkable the idea is."

"People might have thought we were joking about speed humps on the freeway, but I can assure you the plan to do the same to the internet is completely real. It's been all over the news. That's fine, because anyone who opposes mandatory internet filtering obviously loves kiddie porn."

"We know the filtering plan will work, because a website opposing mandatory filtering was taken offline in record time last week. Australia's domain authority body pulled the plug on stephenconroy.com.au in three hours, even though the process generally takes days. That clearly proves that we can eliminate unsavoury websites, although once the web filtering is in place you won't even know that we've done it."

More details of Senator Conroy's mandatory ISP-level internet filtering can be found at nocleanfeed.com.
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I think that this censorship idea has to be one of the least thought out policies, written by people that have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. it has had bugger all testing, and all the ISP's who trailed it say it wont work. It doesn't even touch binaries and P2P and if you speak out against it then you are obviously into "kiddy porn".

GRRRRRR I feel a rant coming on but I will stop before I get upset.


Craig

Now I'm getting concerned...

Australian Government asks google to get-censoring.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Now I'm getting concerned...

Australian Government asks google to get-censoring.

Google's told Conroy to go jump from what I read as he allegedly said they can do it because they already censor Google in China. Someone should censor Conroy.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

Google's told Conroy to go jump from what I read as he allegedly said they can do it because they already censor Google in China. Someone should censor Conroy.

He said that on television, I believe. (See ABC Hungry Beast show last Tuesday).

He does not appear to understand the difference between what Google does in China, which is filter search results, and what he wants them to do for Australia, which is to filter Youtube requests - which is a whole different ball game. Google has pointed out that the request would mean filtering material which is not only legal to view everywhere else in the developed world, but which is likely to be of significant political importance in Australia; and have basically told him to get lost.

For anyone who has any doubt whether the filtering proposal is a good idea, just ponder for a moment the meaning of the Minister speaking approvingly of how China censors the net. After all, this is the same government that criticised China for internet censorship during the Olympics.

John

just another nail in the coffin of free speech and expression.
I mean, censorship in Australia, a modern developed country it's just a joke.

You know I don't even know what political party this idiot bats for but i'll damn sure find out come next election