First it was illegal content blocked in a clean feed that must be offered by ISP’s (Beazley 2006), but on an opt in basis. Then it was illegal and “offensive” content on a mandatory clean feed that people could opt in to (ALP Policy 2007 Election), then out of (Minister Conroy late 2007). Then there was no opt out, and instead it was illegal and offensive content blocked for everyone, and anything not remotely kid friendly blocked as the second choice (Minister Conroy).
But just when you thought it couldn’t get any better:
“The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content,” Senator Conroy told Parliament.
Yep, now it’s “unwanted” content as well. Feeling like a fascist totalitarian society already? I’d say China, but I’m not sure they’re always quite so bad and blatant, because they at least go through the pretence of making most of their filtered content illegal under local laws.
I’m guessing then that perhaps the Liberal Party might find themselves blocked, after all their criticism would be “unwanted” by the Government. Newspapers; press the button, not looking for you.
That might be a little extreme, but here’s the catch: The Government won’t disclose who gets on the list and under what grounds, so it really does smell like fascism.
This is a joke that just when you think its bad, it gets worse again. Surely there must be some Human Rights treaty Australia has signed up to that the Government has now breached, and a Pro Bono lawyer who is willing to take the good fight to the United Nations or similar?
(the quote is via News.com.au who we’re not linking to after they threatened us over some pictures we ran on The Inquisitr, and who despite numerous requests continue to lift stories and the odd pic themselves unattributed from The Inquisitr….actually, maybe news.com.au SHOULD be in the filter 😉 )
