The whole idea of the Conroy sponsored 'Internet blacklist' has blown up over the past few months.
It's moved originally as an 'opt-in/opt-out' blacklist to now a mandatory list. That's right, Australia will join the ranks of countries like Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen who block gambling and porn sites. Australia is headed to have the most restrictive Internet blocks in place of any Western country.
It makes a mockery of our soldiers going to fight against the Taliban to 'free the people', when our own ministers are doing exactly that to their own people.
I'm not someone who watches porn (never really titillated me), nor am I a gambler. (I work all day in front of a computer screen, I dont see the fun in then paying money to another screen). Failing that cards and dice seem too mathematical and statistical for me to gamble on!.
However, I can't stand by and watch an individual in a position of government authority mandate to all citizens what they can and can't view/do on the Internet.
Let me spell this out however, I am totally against child pornography. Unfortunately the zealous mode that
Sen. Conroy attacks anyone who is against his proposed blacklist is that they condone such acts (child pornography). It really is a case of the pollie sticking his fingers in his ears and shouting 'la-la-la'.
The current list in trial at several ISPs has been leaked on the Internet, and the response from Conroy is to
threaten $11,000 dollar per day fines for anyone linking to it.
I guess we now have rules on the Internet Blacklist as such:
#1 - The first rule of Conroy's Blacklist is, you do not talk about Conroy's Blacklist.
#2 - The second rule of Conroy's Blacklist is, you DO NOT talk about Conroy's Blacklist.
They might be more believable if Conroy hires a topless Brad Pitt to utter them.
So much for democracy in this country. Even
discussing the issue of the blacklist appears to have the Federal government now reading blogs and popular technical websites. Big brother is now watching, and ready to drop his heel and crush anyone will to stand up against them.
What is appalling with this policy of becoming a mandatory blacklist, is that this is NOT what voters brought Labour into power for. Labour were looking at implementing an opt-out blacklist. A classic case of bait and switch.
To add further insult to injury, Conroy has also gone about raising large carrots in front of the very organisations that would speak out about filtering. The actual ISPs, with many involved in tenders for the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout. None of these organisations are going to step on too many toes for fear that this would jeopardise their bids for the quite lucrative $4.5B AUD on offer from the government.
What is most alarming with such a system is not so much that it is there to block 'illegal' content, but more so the fact the list is not open for public scrutiny.
Once in place, what check points are in place to ensure that political dissent, religious, or drug/health related material is not also blocked?
I'm sorry, the guise of 'protecting the children' doesn't wash. If the government where more interested in protecting children, then work into curbing the increasing rate of cyber-bullying, identify theft, malware and phishing attacks. Are these covered? Absolutely not.
The current policy on the Internet blacklist appears to be anything that a devout Catholic would object to. Whilst morally this is fine Mr. Conroy, it's not the middle ages, and this is not the Christian Crusades.
Much of the content on the blacklist to date is not illegal. There is no judicial process in place to ensure legitimate illegal websites are only placed on this list. An independent and legal authority (ie: A panel of high court judges) needs to review each Internet resource from a legal standpoint. The current regime of relying on an underpaid, overworked government employee with a minister breathing down their neck wanting results is not a system that will produce credible results.
Stand up Australia, It may only be a few porn sites and gambling sites on the list at present. What happens if your companies legitimate URL 'accidentally' makes it on the list? You have no grounds of appeal, and it's likely to kill your Australian business. Never mind your ability to
know what's on the list (the blacklist isn't even allowed to be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act! -- thanks to modifications to the Act). Who's to say that the list isn't able to be influenced by fringe groups with axes to grind. We'll never know.
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