Hands off the Internet

Despite provoking a wrath of criticism from industry and privacy groups, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has pushed ahead with the controversial national Internet content filtering scheme.

Legal experts warn that under the government’s proposed mandatory Internet content filtering plan Australians will have no way of finding out what “illegal” content has been censored and blocked online. Concern is widespread over Conroy’s ambiguity regarding exactly what content will or won’t be blocked — and who will be able to opt-out of the filtering.

Only last week the mandatory Internet filtering proposal caused a stir when it was revealed a member of Conroy's department tried to censor severely critical comments made on the Whirlpool broadband forum by an Internode network engineer regarding the merits of ISP level filtering.

Experts have confirmed that Australians will have no recourse to determine what has been blocked, once it is on the blacklist. As Electronic Frontiers Association chair Dale Clapperton told Computerworld, “Every organisation with an axe to grind and any kind of political clout will be lobbying the government to extend the blacklist to block access to whatever it is that pisses them off.”

So what to do? Let the government decide what information you can see on the Internet? Or send a loud and clear message that you’re not going to stand for it?

We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell the government that you’re sticking up for the rights of freedom of communication.

And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to our petition page and get on board!

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