Internet Censorship Clampdown Begins In One Month
Chatrooms Will Be Forced To Undergo "Professional Assessment" To Continue Operating
Will Fight Against Child Pornography Prove To Be The Trojan Horse For Far-Reaching Online Censorship?
By Darryl Mason
A new wave of "restrictions" on mobile phone content, websites, chatrooms and message boards will be introduced in Australia by late January, 2008.
Do you like the way this has been announced only days before Christmas, and will be in place by the time most Australians return from their Christmas holidays? Surely, it's just a coincidence?
The first push in this new wave of censorship of Australian internet content begins with what may well prove to be a 'trojan horse' of sorts - the almost unanimously supported push to keep children from viewing "unsuitable material".
You are supposed to immediately think of child pornography, or graphic adult pornography, but the censorship regime is wide open to interpretation. For example, "violent imagery" also falls under these news bans. It doesn't simply mean photographs of children being abused or raped. It also means imagery that shows the results of acts of violence. War violence, for example. The censorship body in Australia has already tried to ban imagery from a video game that showed two animated android-like women kissing, and backed down to widespread outrage and mockery.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will be able to force content providers to take down offensive material and issue notices for live content to be stopped and links to the content deleted.
But ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said adults will not be affected by the new laws.
Of course not. Not yet, anyway.
"In developing these new content rules, ACMA was guided by its disposition to allow adults to continue to read, hear and see what they want, while protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content, regardless of the delivery mechanism," Mr Chapman said in a statement.
Providers of live services, such as chatrooms, must have their service professionally assessed to determine whether its "likely content" should be restricted.
And what if you are a one man chatroom operator who can't afford what is likely to be very expensive "professional assessment"? You won't allowed to operate your business online.
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Earlier this year, The Orstrahyun reported on moves to censor online content that is deemed, by the government censor, to be supportive of terrorism, or supplies information on how to carry out acts of terrorism. President Bush tells us we must read what Osama Bin Laden has to say to understand the threat of terrorism, but the Australian internet censorship body will be moving to stop you from getting access to that kind of information. Which must also mean you can forget about reading histories of Jewish terrorists fighting for the establishment of Israel, and the history of the IRA.
The new censorship regime for internet content was introduced by Howard government in September, and emulates the steel fist approach used by China. More on that here.
Back to the current story :
Personal emails and other private communications would be excluded from the new laws and so would news or current affairs services.Is that all news and current affairs services, or just the ones approved by the government censor?
The censorship of website content will begin with tough restrictions on access to pornography and "violent images", but the temptation will be strong to broaden the scope of what material is deemed to be unsuitable for under-18s. Or what should not be available online to Australian web surfers at all.
Pornographic images of children are clearly unacceptable to all Australians, but what about an image of children torn apart by NATO bombs in Afghanistan?
Will a particularly feisty message board about government corruption or filled with commenters voicing great displeasure at the 'War on Terror', with lots of swearing, fall under the censor's blanket bans and restrictions?
Not yet.
But what about six months from now?
And what happens when independent internet media in Australia start pulling the same sort of visitor numbers as the mainstream media news sites?
This is already happening in the US, where sites like Crooks & Liars and PrisonPlanet, on a good day, can pull the same volume of readership as CBS News. Will the mainstream media work behind the scenes to freeze out the new competition? Will they push for tighter censorship and restrictions that makes it all but impossible for the independents to remain in business?
The use of the extremely distressing issue of child pornography is the beginning of the widespread censoring of internet content in Australia. It remains to be seen just how far this new censorship will go, or how far independent media and bloggers will allow it to spread before they start fighting back.
Government Expands "Black List" Of Banned Internet Sites
Porn, Violence, 'Terror' And Social Networking Sites Now In Firing Line
Australia Now Bans More Video Games Than Any Other Country In The World
'Terror' Books And Movies To Be Banned Under Extraordinary New Censorship Laws
"Patriotic" Movies, Video Games That "Glorify War" Will Be Excluded From New Ban Regime
13 comments:
Just before Christmas and passing legislation is a trick your country learned from the our bank cartel here in America known as the Federal Reserve System which was passed 1913 2 days before Christmas. America is under attack from inside itself just as all so called free nations are.
"any nation who sacrifice liberty for security deserves neither and losses both" Benjamin Framklin
It's not just in OZ, censorship is also becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like "America Deceived" America Deceived (book) from Amazon and Wikipedia, and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings. Free Speech forever (including the internet).
This has been expected for some time as the "controllers" are fearfull and rightly so, that the world may learn and has learnet what they are up to.
The "controllers" are aghast that there are not many people in the worl who want to go along with their agenda, including the conquest and killing of citizens in other countries and the creation and encoluragement of 'concocted fear' (terrorism) so as to control ordinary people. The war machine and bankers have to be beside themselves with the ever increasing open communication between the world's citizens. So the "controllers" spent all those years buying up journalists and contolling them and now their investments are at risk because the world populace are now awre that the contolled mass media is as deceitfull as some child molester encouraging some innocent child. One wonders who is the worse; the child manipulator or the controlled mass media manipulators who encorage hate, fear, control and war. I say to the mass media; stuff your newspapers and propaganda, go broke, it is up to the people to avoid them and their deceit. Besides the two sites mentioned; have a daily look at Reviro's What reallyhappened.com. Got to go someone outside is interferring with my service!!
Mallee.
As an old geezer American in the land of oz, I can assert good intentions and 'protect the children' is fartherest from their minds.
Governments have hated the Internet ever since it became public. Before that, the wowsers tried to curtail computer bulletin boards. Lotsa luck. The control freaks have no idea how devious and creative free individuals can be. Sneakernet rules, if need be.
For the timid worried about 'the children', parents should look after their own, not rely on government or anyone else to do that.
I'm just glad I kept an old dial-up modem. We can recreate an ad hoc network.
And if push comes to shove, I would expect some DDOS attacks. Just a prediction based on wide reading in tech areas, no personal involvement. But sometimes, I wish! We've known for 30 years the masters of the universe are pig-ignorant of technology. If it takes guerilla cyberpunks to teach them another lesson, so be it.
I agree. Don't throw away your old dial up modem. If you don't have one, find one and buy it and then stick in the cupboard.
The 'old geezer' above is right. With dial up an ad hoc network can always be set up. Not so with wireless.
This is obscenely absurd and will have censors chasing underground sites entitled "Little Miss Muffin" which could be a site involving child porn, intellectual discourse, or an actual site about Little Miss Muffin...how much time and money do the censors want to waste? There will be more innovation and intrigue inspired to word of mouth internet sites, and growth of third party proxy hosting sites. It's a pointless exercise...prosecute a few, and more free thinkers will create endless ways to keep the truth seekers of the world to find ways to communicate however whenever and whatever. I've always thought that in America "terrorism" was the enemy, not free thought or free speech, which is guaranteed in our Constitution. If that right has been rescinded then perhaps someone should make our public aware. Many Americans are growing disillusioned with the current administration which seems hell bent on dissolution of what our forefathers held as God given rights. Justice, Liberty, and Free Speech for all...the linchpins of Democracy. Take those away and you have fascism. Our problem in America is not censorship but corporate news telling, which in essence makes news a commodity, and
as a result puts Britney Spears ahead of Iraq on a "slow news day".
Our real problem here in the states isn't censorship, but ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) when it comes to major news stories and how much time people devote to things affecting their own lives vs. making a livelihood.
Anyone (party/candidate/political group) that proposes this, will not win any votes (majority). We're used to choices here and if they take that away, Americans will become more restless than they already are. I wish they would do it so impeachment trials could start sooner than later.
apologies to all for the 'typos' in my previous post, the connection kept mysteriously disconnecting; bloody "Big Pond Wireless"! Get your act together, you have to pay the ceos millions and you will not have the money Telstra if you keep stuffing up the service.
Good to see some response on this subject.
To start the response to censorship may I suggest that the sites one finds informative, be mentioned. Therefore I also mention "informationclearinghouse.
com and Antony Lowenstein's site. ( I do not know the link) he wrote "My Israel Question" and for his troubles attracted the ire of many. He has a list of usefull bloggers, to long to mention, let alone read.
May I suggest that in the terms of one article I read, namely; "I am blogger hear me roar", let us ROAR.
As for the old "geezer" there are a few approaching that period, many of us are professionals who (embarrasingly) now accept that the mass media has been 'mass media deceit'. We "baby Boomers" must spend some of the time available to ensure that our grandchildren enjoy the democratic values, fought for, that are so much under threat by the would be fascists. I trust that some have read Naomi Wolfe's; "Ten Steps to Fascism". The steps have been prepared and we must be wary of the planned implementation. Censorship will be an attempt to lock down the last civility of freedom. I am reminded of newsreels of the 1950's when ballons with freedom messages were periodically sent from Taiwan to China, to encourage hope for freedom. Better start saving balloons for messages seeking help! But as they say: "when they came to pick up me there was no one left to hear my screams", or something similar.
Mallee.
Disgusting. And only the beginning.
Independent media is out of control thanks to the internet, and the big boys don't like it. That is, the governments don't like it. Most of the mainstream media are pawns of government and their parent companies who are in the pockets of governments.
2008 will be the year they try and shut down independent media online. It won't work but oh they will try it.
One way they will do this is make it harder and harder for independent media to operate by having them have to jump through burning hoops of time consuming regulations.
It was good while it lasted.
"adults will not be affected by the new laws."
So how are they going to tell who is visiting these websites and chat rooms. It's impossible to censor link/webistes from children but allow adult to visit them. ISP's and HOSTS are not going to know who clicked the link or visited the site, unless they breach the privacy law and peer into our internet account or monitor our accounts.
This is just another push to have the internet censored... My 8 year old son can goto the public library and find most of this content right off the shelf.
"This is just another push to have the internet censored... My 8 year old son can goto the public library and find most of this content right off the shelf."
Shhh!
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