Vale Free Speech Online in Australia

December 31, 2007

My write up at TechCrunch.

I knew it was coming, but I’m still shocked to see them officially announce it. A little of what I wrote last time still sits very true this very, very dark day in the history of freedom in Australia:

first they blocked the porn sites, and no one said a thing,

next it was the dissenters, and still no one said a thing.

Next it was bloggers, and although I was one of them I said nothing.

Then they blocked me.

6 responses to Vale Free Speech Online in Australia

  1. Missing Howard already? 🙂

  2. This troubles me (http://tinyurl.com/33gfj5):

    ?¢‚Ǩ?ìLabor makes no apologies to those who argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Mr Conroy said yesterday. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìIf people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

    So if I opt out of the filter I’m assumed to be watching child porn? You’ve got to be joking.

    If the black list contains child porn sites it is a logical certainty that the government is aware of said child porn sites. Adding the site to the GFOA doesn’t abrogate the governemnt of the moral responsibility incumbent upon it – send some attack helicopters or ninja assassins or, fuck me, the local constabulary.

    And in doing so make the filter unnecessary. That is, unless it has shit all to do with protecting the kiddies…

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