Wow. Some people really just don't get it. Some Aussie politicians are pushing full-bore ahead to "filter" content on the Internet. Here's one more story about it.
"This is a modest measure, which reflects long-held community standards about the type of content that is unacceptable in a civilised society,"
Banning whatever he feels like is "modest"? Wow.
"Those who claim the Government's approach is akin to the sort of political censorship practiced by authoritarian regimes are simply misleading the Australian public."
It is akin because it's the first step to it.
Blocking kiddie porn is one thing that most certainly should be aggressively pursued, but blocking whatever they want is way off the mark. What people are objecting to is the broad, sweeping nature of the legislation that will enable the government to do whatever they want.
From the article link above:
Senator Conroy said ISP level filtering alone was not enough to help fight child pornography or keep children safe online, which was why the Government supported the block of content such as child sexual abuse imagery and material advocating terrorism.
"Oh! Save the children!" Yeah. That's a bandwagon that everyone always jumps on, but what else is in there? It's not just child pornography that they want to be able to block. Using children to promote a political agenda like that is simply sickening. Common, but sickening.
"Terrorism." Nice buzz-word. Unfortunately it really has no meaning as it's just an umbrella term for "violent people that we don't like." Intelligence services the world over do far worse things than what "terrorists" do in the 6 o'clock news. So who counts as a "terrorist"? (BTW - The Australian intelligence service publicly advertises for applicants in newspapers.)
Filtering IS censorship. At least the way they want it in Australia.
Cheers,
Ryan