The subject of todays article is one which is becoming increasingly frightening to myself and so it should to you as well. I am talking of course about freedom, privacy and equality when it comes to using the internet to request and send information.
Be it the content that we choose to view, the viewpoints we wish to present or even the skillsets and subjects which we choose to study it has always been my belief that it should be up to us as individuals what we choose to view or not view and put in place our own rules and “filters” should we not wish to view or access certain selections of content
We are all well aware of the many countries which attempt to censor the freedom of speech of its people be it speech expressed person to person, in the media or now over the internet and as such it is generally accepted that such countries filter and monitor the content going in and out in order to maintain a control over its people.
I am sure that we are all aware of the Great “Firewall” of china and the and the conditions that the people of China are subjected to whenever they connect out to the WWW. I have always found it barbaric and controlling and I was always thankful to live in a country where I was sure that such things could not occur.
If however like me you read any sort of international news you will now realise that this sort of thing is now coming into our own backyards under the guise of “protection” and “saving the children”. Allow me to point out just a few resources that you may find alarming should you live in the country who will next be affected by such nonsense.
Australia: http://nocleanfeed.com/
The Government is refusing to release concrete details on the plan. However, we know that ISP-level filtering has been ALP policy for some time and is being zealously pursued by the Minister. What we do know is this:
- The feed will be mandatory in all homes and schools across the country.1
- The filter will censor material that is “harmful and inappropriate” for children.2
- The filter will require a massive expansion of the ACMA’s blacklist of prohibited content.3
- The filter will target legal as well as illegal material.4
What we don’t know is just as important.
- Will there be any way to opt out from the scheme?
- What age level is the country’s Internet to be made appropriate for? 15? 10? 5 years old?
- Who decides what material is “appropriate” for Australians to see?
- Who will maintain the blacklist of prohibited sites?
- How can sites mistakenly added to the list be removed?
There are a number of other articles floating around including a recent article that states Australians will NOT be able to opt out of this filtering which means that once it comes into effect the Government of the Australian people will be deciding what the nation can and can not view on the internet.
I have a number of friends who in the past have been most paranoid about the activities that they undertake online and go to great lengths to ensure that their identity was always kept private and I simply responded the same way everytime when asked why I did not and it was because I saw no real reason to doing so. More and more however when I see articles like this arising from around the world I come to the conclusion that the time is now to do something about my privacy and my right right to both freedom of expression and speech without allowing our Governments to dictate what we can and cannot say and what we can and cannot view.
Quite a large group of people would ask me what I have to hide to despise such monitoring and filtering. Their argument states that if I am doing nothing wrong then what do I have to hide? Going off that argument then I am sure you would have no issues at all with me filming you through your front windows while you shower or spend time with your family. I mean you have nothing to hide right?
In part two of this article I outline some simple steps that you can employ to get around such attempts to pervert your right to privacy and freedom of choice and I outline and give my impressions on a communitity which is attempting forge ahead in this area and offer you a space to do as you see fit without the fear of being censored or monitored.
I would ask that if you have an opinion on this article regardless of if you agree with it that you leave a comment below.
Alternatively you can discuss this on the forums:
Maybe time to move to canada, I’ve heard good stories of that place.
Australia is such a cunt of a place to live sometimes, especially when we’ve got some dusty old coot who has knowledge of nothing newer than Valve radios and is the minister that controls the internet in australia.
Hell, the douchebags think we aren’t adult enough to have R Rated games.
Fear is a great way to slowly steal away the rights of a countries citizens, unfortunately what we see here is a prime example of that.
Filtering and privacy are separate issues.
Before people go emo over filtering let’s recognise that ALL media are restricted, whether through ‘censorship’ law or through other law such as defamation and trade practices.
Contrary to myths about ‘free speech’ (which in practice is usually restricted to political speech) all countries have some restrictions on what can be said. That’s often a good thing, because not everyone has the same ability to defend themselves and because lies can have serious consequences for the victim. Neither Australia nor Canada allow people to cause injury by ’shouting fire in a crowded theatre’ (one restriction) or to maliciously claim that someone is a thief or paedophile (another restriction).
Canada censors. So does Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and other ’small l liberal’ countries. (The Scandinavian censorship is often tougher than that in Australia. Bums on the box in dot-se are fine, ads for cancer sticks aren’t. Child porn? No way).
Why is the internet different to radio, tv or print?
I definitely think that if this is to go ahead there certainly needs to be a way to opt out.
The privacy of what people do when browsing the internet needs to be preserved here, and as Fred said privacy and filtering are separate things.
Unfortunately for us the Australian public is too mellow and complacent to really do anything about this, and if this is to go ahead (which I don’t think it will, not for quite a while) then it will happen so with a whimper rather than a bang.
I do agree with you though Jay – who decides what is allowed and what is not allowed to be viewed? More importantly, where does it end? Does it start with this, and then the grip gets tighter and tighter, relieving us of access of less and less of the internet?
The internet is different to radio and print in a multitude of ways, moreso that it is just another medium through which we access the world. Much like sound and sight these days. The internet is not “media” per se, even though I just referred to it as a medium. Know what I mean?