Filtering the Internet

Showing that it is desperately trying to beat the UK at being the biggest Nanny State the Australian Government is still going ahead with the Internet filtering.

The government started their trial of the filtering software on 11 February. Using a few ISPs the target were "illegal sites" as defined by the Broadcasting Services Act. The problem to date is what is to be filtered, the story keeps changing. The target as defined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority is RC, R18+ and X18+ content. The R18+ materials will be blocked if it is not part of some restricted access system.

The block list is 1300 sites but there is a larger list of 10000 sites. So far not sounding too bad but Senator Ludlam has talked about dynamic filtering, according to content and categories: the use of computer-driven algorithms to establish categories, rather than any human insight into what may be blocked. This could mean that perfectly legal sites can be blocked if they happen to have a few words the filters don’t like.

The scheme was initially focused on protecting children but the scope seems to have grown somewhat since then. What is lacking is any clarity from the government on exactly where this scheme is going.

It should be content that is banned under any medium. Not content that is banned in one form but available in others. Blocking access to any form of child pornography is a given and should be mandatory. When they start talking about violence the lines can become somewhat blurred.

They are also talking about sites that advocate carrying out terrorist acts. I wonder if all those Islamic sites that propose such things will indeed be blocked or will somehow get a pass under some form of ‘equal opportunity’ excuse, (translation: cowardice in the face of protests).

In general censorship is not a good thing and when it comes to trying to filter the Internet it has been demonstrated to be a complete failure even in places like China.