Submission + - Australian Government Censorship 'Worse than Iran'
An anonymous reader writes: The Australian Government's plan to Censor the Internet is producing problems for ISPs, with filters causing speeds to drop by up to 86% and falsely blocking 10% of safe sites. The Government Minister in charge of the censorship plan, Conservative Christian Stephen Conroy, has been accused of bullying ISP employees critical of his plan: "If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree".
Conroy's plan involves censoring at the ISP level to product 'Child-safe' Internet feeds. Initially he said that adults would be able to opt out. He since reversed that position, saying instead they can only go onto an 'Adult-safe' feed censoring 'illegal material', which another senator warned could include "euthanasia material, politically related material, material about anorexia." Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia said "I'm not exaggerating when I say that this model involves more technical interference in the internet infrastructure than what is attempted in Iran, one of the most repressive and regressive censorship regimes in the world."
Conroy's plan involves censoring at the ISP level to product 'Child-safe' Internet feeds. Initially he said that adults would be able to opt out. He since reversed that position, saying instead they can only go onto an 'Adult-safe' feed censoring 'illegal material', which another senator warned could include "euthanasia material, politically related material, material about anorexia." Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia said "I'm not exaggerating when I say that this model involves more technical interference in the internet infrastructure than what is attempted in Iran, one of the most repressive and regressive censorship regimes in the world."
