The end of Australian Bluelight?

[Dr.Feelgood]

It has been brought to my attention that one of the proposed websites to be 'blocked' by Australia's upcoming internet filter will be Bluelight, as it falls into the category of 'unsuitable material' in that it discusses harm minimization in relation to drug use. Personally, I can only hope the filter will fail within it's first year and be eradicated, though Stephen Conroy seems pretty adamant to get his way no matter the scope of public protest and criticism. Any thoughts on this?

Australian Gov't Approves Internet Censorship Plan

Australia's federal government has announced that it is proceeding with controversial plans to censor the Internet after government-commissioned trials found that using a blacklist of banned sites was accurate and would not slow down web use.

Critics, including Google, Electronic Frontiers Australia and Greens communications argue that the censorship policy is fundamentally flawed and the trial results are not surprising.

Stephen Conroy, Australia's Communications Minister, will introduce legislation just before next year's elections designed to force ISPs to block a blacklist of refused classification, or "RC" websites for all Australians using the Internet.
What will be Blocked?

The blacklist would be comprised of material that includes illicit child photos, violence and other criminal activity and would be compiled using complaints from the public, government censors and URLs that are provided internationally.

It's unknown what specifically would be blocked and who decides the fate of web sites. What is known is that such blocking will not reduce performance: results of ISP-level Internet studies found that blocking banned material "can be done with 100 percent accuracy and negligible impact on Internet speed." (Source: com.au)

Top-Secret List Reveals Extensive Filtering

How, or if, ISP filters will distinguish between illegal 'refused classification' material and material that is perfectly legal to view is not yet clear. The government's top-secret list of banned sites leaked on the Internet in March revealed that filtering extended beyond illicit images of children.

Instead, almost half of the sites on the government's top-secret list had nothing to do with this kind of content. Many of the links included online poker sites, YouTube links, regular adult sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, fanatical religious sites, a tour operator's website and the website of a Queensland dentist.

Improving Accountability and Transparency

Conroy noted that the government would partake in public consultations and released a discussion paper on additional measures allegedly aimed at improving the accountability and transparency processes that result in sites being blacklisted.

Appeal mechanisms, notification to website owners of RC content, and review by an independent expert are some of the options being considered.

Google notes that Germany and Italy have mandatory, limited-scope ISP filtering in place, but Australia's proposed censorship would combine a mandatory framework and a wide scope of content.
Google Against Mandatory ISP Filtering Regime

Google is concerned about Australia's plans to introduce mandatory filtering for ISPs in Australia, primarily that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide and Google believes that moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond child abuse material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. (Source: blogspot.com)

RC is a broad category of content that includes socially and politically controversial material in addition to child abuse material. Because of the broad content, Google believes that the government should not have the right to block information that can inform debate on controversial issues. The openness of the Internet makes public debate more possible and should be protected, it says.

http://www.infopackets.com/news/gov...an_govt_approves_internet_censorship_plan.htm

 

[joannie_mhm]

Do you still do sex/relationships talk on the radio, Dr?

 

[andyturbo]

what fucking bullshit

 

[Ahkei]

I am not even kidding, the day the internet is censored I'll commit suicide. That is a fucking gross violation of our human fucking right to knowledge.

 

[IXinX]

I for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

 

[baysieguy1]

So it seems that once this internet filter is in place, we will at last been annexed by China.

Australia was among many countries that condemned China during the Olympic for censoring the internet, and here they go and do it themselves.

Carte Blanche laws from the government AGAIN, allowing them to fool/scare monger the mainstream public into believing that they need the filter for their safety and security of themselves and their children, then slip in all sorts of classifications into the law/filter that allows them to classify anything they don't like as illegal or unsafe.

And they wonder why no one trusts the Australian Government Labour or LIberal . . . . .

 

[psycosynthesis]

/b/ will save us. Let's just fucking pray it doesn't come to that.

 

[maddux91]

It will never happen. it will be one of those things that they threaten to do, but will never happen. Well, at least I bloody hope it doesn't. The government will realise how unpopular this method of censoring the internet is, they dont want to lose voters, not going to happen.

 

[belarki]

^ you might want to read the news a little more often. Conroy declared only last week that the filter will go ahead. The government is all for the filter; even Labor members who were vocally opposed to it have been pulled into line and made to appear to agree with the Labor Caucus (e.g. Kate Lundy). The only way it'll be stopped now is in the senate or if Labor lose the next election and it's scrapped before being implemented.

If you want to stay up to date on its progress I can suggest whirlpool for a good summary of weekly news.

 

[justsayknow]

It has been brought to my attention that one of the proposed websites to be 'blocked' by Australia's upcoming internet filter will be Bluelight, as it falls into the category of 'unsuitable material' in that it discusses harm minimization in relation to drug use.

Hey I've heard a few people say this now. Where did this information come from? Nothing I've read outside of bluelight mentions this site as being on the banned list?

Anyone got a reference or source?

 

[justsayknow]

http://www.dbcde.gov.au/all_funding_programs_and_support/cybersafety_plan/transparency_measures

Bit Pattern posted this link in the other thread in ADD.
Its got a part at the bottom of the page asking for submissions about the filter and the censorship list.

 

[NickyJ]

Does anyone know if Pill Reports will be included in the censored list? I'm too lazy to figure it out for myself.

 

[justsayknow]

I think Pill Reports could hypothetically be added. It looks like neither BL or PR are on any current lists but the way they are wording it websites with links to illegal content including how to use drugs could be censored.

Theres a thread in ADD with heaps more info.

 

[guineaPig]

so wait, if i happen to be awake and on /b/ at 4-5am my time, i will no longer be subject to like 50 "ausfags report in!" threads?

sweet.

 

[plazma]

What complete goddamn fucking bullshit. But given how the Howard years' neo-facist policies have continued wholesale under Krudd's tenure (workchoices, refugee policy etc), we should be under no illusions about the kind of governments we tend to elect (i.e the kind that would put us third on the list of dictatorships censoring the internet, right after the jolly old states of the People's Republic and Iran).

One giant leap backwards people. But hey, if we just sit on our arses and let this sort of shit happen, we've got no right to complain, every democracy only dies a piece at a time, and every time everyone says its nothing to worry about. Who knows, maybe this will incite the most politically apathetic nation in the world after the US into action, but I doubt it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fascism for the Family.

 

[lostpunk5545]

Haha nice to see it brought you back

 

[hoptis]

And as angry as ever.

 

[Kramer525]

Im still hoping this is just a joke...

 

[quiet roar]

Yeah, and the joke's on us

 

[plazma]

Hah, yeah actually it was funny as soon as I heard that the censorship plan was going to be put forward my first thought was that bluelight would be the first to fall. So much for anyone wanting to get the drug education that we got in order to not kill themselves through doing stupid shit. This is a pathetic attempt by an increasingly religiously dominated Australian body politik to impose some kind of judeo-christian wholesome fundamentalism on the broader Australian public. The sad thing is that the moral crusaders have the numbers to get this shit passed, as we're talking about the majority of the labour and liberal parties united in an attempt to stage some kind of howard government revival tour on a magical journey through time to the land of the white picket fence. Where we can live for ever in a land free of sin, black people and equal gender relations, everybody saw Pleasantville right?

The worst bit is these child protection advocates and parents who are speaking out on behalf of censoring the internet to 'protect the children', ostensibly to disrupt paedophilia related activity and/or pornography they never seem to be sure about which. I'm sure that most of them don't even realise they've become shills for the cause of fascism. I don't dispute that children need to be at least partially shielded from some internet related deviance, but any parent worth spit knows that its THEIR FUCKING JOB TO DO IT. Parental responsibility seems to be on the ebb these days, but hey at the end of the day parents they're your fucking kids not the government's so maybe you should consider taking an interest if you don't already. Rather than leaving Channel 7 and the 'safe internet' to raise your kids into the kind of politically blind and ethically fucktarded generation that has what it takes to top the ignorance, apathy and 2 second attention span of this one, the ones that sat around and let this internet censorship thing happen. The most transparently obvious part of this is the way in which they're refusing to actually tell the public which sites they're blocking, as this gives the maximum possible overhead for 'bracket creep' in the worst possible sense. Drugs are the logical next point, where next? Gay marriage? Refugee advocacy? Different political systems? The problem with wanting to protect society from itself is that you have so much to choose from.

I'd say that what follows after this is that they'll be reading your emails and instant messages (because only the guilty have anything to hide of course) but hey, Echelon and AT&T have been doing that shit for 10 years already. Oh snap.

We'll all be [ C E N S O R E D ] soon...