Australian Web Filter to Block More than 10,000 ‘Unwanted’ Sites

New mandatory filter will begin with 1300 and grow to a range of about 10,000, but many are questioning who gets to decide what sites should included and why.

As Australia gears up for the testing phase of its new plan to have ISPs filter the Internet of "inappropriate content" and "offensive and illegal material," it’s now being reported that the govt blacklist has already been compiled and will begin with some 1300 sites.

"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," Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy told Parliament today.

"While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list – as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 – so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined."

Many are rightly upset with the plan because not only is the plan mandatory, but it also means that a govt bureaucrat will be the one determining what sites ar included. It’s his decision and his alone that determines what is "unwanted content."

"Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list," said Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Colin Jacobs. "Under the current mandate that includes adult material, which would mean most material that could be rated R and, in some circumstances, material rated MA15+."

The plan would try to turn the Internet into a g-rated version that really does make anybody safer in the end. It’s also entirely ineffective because it will never be able to sanitize the Internet of "unwanted" or "inappropriate content."

iiNet, Australia’s largest ISP, has even decided to prove once and for all the ridiculousness of the whole plan in a fashion that makes it beyond reproach., giving it "hard numbers" to show just "how stupid it is."

It’s even dumber for Senator Conroy to think the plan is even possible, especially with a recent trial of the web-filtering technology showing that it slowed down Internet access by as much as 87% it doesn’t bode well for Australian Internet users.

Moreover, allowing the govt to begin censoring the Internet is a draconian effort to impose the morality of Senator Conroy on an entire country.

jared@zeropaid.com

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