Take a Stand Against Australian Censorship!
By Sam PascuaDon’t Allow the Australian Government to Limit Internet Usage
The Australian government recently announced plans to introduce Internet filters that will block access to various websites throughout our country. Which websites? Those that our government has deemed illegal, however arbitrary that designation may be. Such action is a blatant and unacceptable attempt to control the content that we Australians are able to view online legally.
All of us at Design Industries strongly oppose this censorship. We believe that each individual should have full freedom to browse the Internet and, in doing so, express free speech and encourage others to do so. We believe our fellow Australian citizens possess the integrity and personal responsibility to manage and control their own Internet usage and to monitor the Internet usage of their children – without government involvement or handholding.
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Google expresses concern with the Government’s mandatory censorship
By Sam PascuaIn December we expressed our concern with the Government’s filtering proposal in this blog. Today we join the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), which represents 12 million library users around Australia, Yahoo! and the Inspire Foundation in proposing some core principles for a Safer Internet. We also expand on our views in a submission to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
Australians deserve an Open Internet
By Sam PascuaElectronic Frontiers Australia today launched a new campaign against the Rudd Government’s mandatory Internet filtering plan.
The Open Internet campaign emphasises that Australians want an Open Internet that is free from an impractical and costly policy of Government imposed mandatory Internet filtering.
“This policy has caused considerable anxiety amongst Australian Internet users,” said EFA Vice-Chair Colin Jacobs. “The idea that the Government will be inserting itself in every Internet connection in the country is a tough one to swallow, especially without a workable policy goal behind it.”
Read moreInternet Censorship Protest Shuts Down Australian Government Websites
By Sam Pascua
Hackers protesting government censorship of the Internet have shut down several Australian government websites in a demonstration against the announcement that filters would be imposed to block access to websites deemed offensive by the authorities.
The campaign was launched by the anti-Scientology group Anonymous in response to plans to implement a mandatory and wide-ranging internet filter modeled on that of the Communist Chinese government.
This is not the first time the group has attacked government websites, having launched a similar stunt last September.
“The main government website, www.australia.gov.au, and parliament’s www.aph.gov.au were both affected along with the sites for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy,” reports AFP.
“No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason,” said a statement released by the group.
The Australian government attacked the campaign as “not a legitimate form of political statement.”
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