Govt undeterred by blacklist leaks
- 25 March, 2009 13:29
- Comments 6
Further leakages of the government's Web site blacklist will not affect plans to deploy a national Internet content filter, according to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
Speaking at a Sydney press conference this morning, Conroy said the leaked list would serve only to publicise Web sites that promote terrorism, hate and child porn.
“Does the [leaked blacklist] mean we are going to stop blocking access to the sites? No. People can continue to put up the lists if they are proud to do that,” Conroy said.
“It is completely untrue that the leaked blacklist contains political content. This is a list which contains sites that promote incest, rape, child pornography and child abuse.
“If people think [leaking the list] is a victory for free speech, to make available that sort of information, they have a perverse sense of free speech. You can oppose the filter and not be a supporter of child pornography, but equally you can support the filters and still be supporter of free speech.
Conroy said the Queensland dental surgery, revealed last week to be on the published blacklist, was added by the vendor that leaked the list after pornography was injected into its Web site by hackers.
He said the latest blacklist published by wikileaks.org on the March 20 “seemed to be close” to the list currently held by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Conroy said much of the analyst and media commentary about the filtering scheme and the blacklists are false.
“The majority of claims and allegations that are made about what we are doing are entirely false. The filter is based on the Broadcast Services Act that does not include political content [and] the same people do the same test for TV, print and radio.”
The blacklist was setup nine years ago by the then Howard government and continues to operate independent of parliamentary intervention.
Web filter participant Tech 2U managing director Andrew Robson also said the leaked blacklist bears little resemblance to the one held by the government regulator.
He said the blacklist he received from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in February this year contained about 1000 Web addresses. The first list published last week on Wikileaks contained about 2300.
“The list is made up of sites lodged from complaints that have breached the classification guidelines. And if it breaches guidelines, the regulator can only block the offending page, not the whole site,” Robson said.
“These lists are given to a stack of software vendors and ISPs that add their own content.
“I am told a page saying 'this site is blocked by the federal government' will be displayed if pages are banned.”
Robson said opponents have double standards if they accept restricted content in television, print and movie theatres but object to comparable filtering of the Internet.
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Comments
Tim
Robson needs a reality check - television, movies and printed media are easy to regulate since there are a limited number of publishers, as oppposed to the internet which is a massive network and is not controllable. People need to realise that there is no central server at the centre of "The Internet"! Trying to implement a filter on something so volatile will be useless, expensive and will slow down our already sub-third world standard Internet connections - plus it's an invasion of human rights.
Damien
Robson has no idea
The difference between all other media and the Internet is that the Internet is a narrow-cast medium, the rest are broadcast. that is, you choose what you see on the Internet, where as TV etc are shoved down your throat to a large extent.
Hayden Price
Get a grip.
Its not that people who want free speech or anything of the like, promote that of child porn, rape, incest or anything of the like. But the fact the list contained sites like poker party, and other site that contain absolutely no illicit material is absolutely ridicules. The internet is about freedom of information. The money should be used to track people who follow the sites which are banned, or contain the illegal material. Use it for the task forces, use it to fix the economy. Its such a waste at this point, when you know, as well as everybody else, this wont stand, this wont last.
Too all who want to support Wikileaks. Head over to the site (not hard to find) and offer your support. Censorship in Australia is getting ridiculous, and we need to do what we can. Let them hear you're voice.
Anonymous
wikileaks will most definitely be on the final ban list.
Anonymous
so funny and so true.
Wang
(No subject)
SCANDALS! SCANDALS!
URGENT!
SOME OF THE WORST CASES OF RACIAL PREJUDICE IN WORLD HISTORY!
PLEASE MAKE SURE PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD GETS THE INFORMATION BELOW!
(There are thousands of copies of the information below on the Internet in Australia.)
LONG LIVE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!
Speaking of Barack Obama—Barack Obama is a racial-minority individual and does not like racism:
CONSTRUCTIVE WORLDWIDE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION RELATING TO SCANDALS:
(I) I do solemnly swear by Almighty God that George W. Bush committed atrocious, racist, hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism which I am not at liberty to mention. Many people know what Bush did. And many people will know what Bush did—even until the end of the world. Bush was absolute evil. Bush is now like a fugitive from justice. Bush is a psychological prisoner. Bush often worries. In any case, Bush will go down in history in infamy.
(II) It is opined that Bill Clinton committed terrifying, racist, hate crimes during his presidency, and I am not free to say anything further about it. ‘Be sure your sins will find you out’ (Numbers 32:23).
(III) What if basically all racial-minority people would subscribe to the interpretations that George Herbert Walker Bush committed monstrous, racist, hate crimes while he was the President of the United States? It will eventually come out: it is only a matter of time.
(IV) I know it may be hard to believe. However, Ronald Wilson Reagan committed horrible, racist, hate crimes during his presidency.
Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
(There are thousands of copies on the Internet (by March 29, 2009) indicating the contents of (I), (II), (III), and (IV). For example, one can go to Google right now, type “George W. Bush committed hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism,” hit “Enter,” and readily find 1,000 or more copies indicating content of (I). For example, one can go to Msn right now (11 April 2009), type “It is opined that Bill Clinton committed racist hate crimes, and I am not free to say anything further about it,” hit “Enter,” and readily find more than 440 copies indicating content of (II). For example, one can go to Msn right now, type “George Herbert Walker Bush committed monstrous, racist, hate crimes,” hit “Enter,” and readily find more than 190 copies indicating content of (III). For example, one can go to Msn right now, type “Ronald Wilson Reagan committed horrible, racist, hate crimes during his presidency,” hit “Enter,” and readily find more than 170 copies indicating content of (IV). The contents of (I), (II), (III), and (IV) exist extensively in all major search engines. And there are thousands of copies in very many countries around the world. For example, there are countless copies on the Internet in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom, etc.)
“BAD NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES: ON THE RACIST HATE CRIMES AND ETERNAL INFAMIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH, BILL CLINTON, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, AND RONALD REAGAN” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
badnewsfromtheunitedstates.blogspot.com
_______________
‘If only there could be a Ban against invention that bottled up memory like scent & it never faded & it never got stale.’ Off the top of my head, it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
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