Plans for “voluntary mandatory” system for ISP-level filtering of of “inappropriate content” and “offensive and illegal material” put on hold until after the next election.
I’ve been covering Australia Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy’s efforts to implement a proposed “voluntary mandatory” Internet filtering regime to “protect children” for some time now. The plan, which initially targeted child pornography, quickly deteriorated as Conroy added “inappropriate content” and “offensive and illegal material to the list, as well as legal pornography, gambling, and even P2P traffic, making Australian citizens rightly upset.
According to The Australian, those plans have been put on hold and won’t be introduced in next month’s or the June sittings of the Australian Parliament. This means any filtering law is unlikely to be passed before the next election.
The govt has been facing increased pressure from a variety of sources, including the US govt, search engine giant Google, and online freedom advocate Electronic Frontiers Australia.
The US Ambassador to Australia also chastised the govt for going to such extremes to fight a problem that has more reasonable solutions.
“We have been able to accomplish the goals that Australia has described, which is to capture and prosecute child pornographers … without having to use internet filters,” the US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, told reporters earlier this month. “We have other means and we are willing to share our efforts with them … it’s an ongoing conversation.”
Google, having already made the headlines recently for its principled decision to leave China rather than continue filtering search results at the behest of communist authorities, also objected to Conroy’s plans, and could conceivably leave Australia too the filter was enacted lest it risk the appearance of a double-standard.
“The governments of many other countries may justify, by reference to Australia, their use of filtering, their lack of disclosure about what is being filtered, and their political direction of agencies administering filtering,” it told the govt.
Through it all Conroy has been undeterred by the criticism. His spokeswoman says the filter’s delay is only temporary, that the govt is still consulting with ISPs and reviewing public concerns, and that once that process is complete, it will introduce the legislation into parliament.
Stay tuned.
I very much doubt that Google would leave Australia. Just a hunch but I don’t think it would happen.
Not living in Australia, my understanding is limited but this sounds like a similar kind of thing to the Digital Economy bill that’s been passed here.
What do the ISPs think of Conroy’s plans? Sky and Virgin have both come out in favour of the DEB here. And if either of them had been my ISP, I’d've been straight online to compare broadband packages and switch.
So, if it can wait until AFTER the election, then who or what is this potential legislation for? “Won’t somebody please think of the children… but only after the election”, I don’t get it!? Unless I can be proven otherwise, this is all just political game-playing, scoring points with certain powerful groups in the community, and *GASP* not something in the publics interest! I wish these a-holes would stop pretending to care, and just get on with their business of being self-righteous, ignorant and stupid. Strip them of any real power, and let the rest of us get on with life, free from the faux-moral ground they claim the represent.
Mind you, the police state-like tactics being suggested by the US govt, aren’t really much better than a filter right? “Just stop us from getting any information for ourselves, then you don’t have to put us in jail”, woah, love those options…
If the Pink Rabbits push too far, the White Rabbits will wake up and push them out of the rabbit hole.