The end of free speech, and other such hyperbole. The clean feed

Today I wish to educate you on the subject of the clean feed or mandatory Internet filter. I wish to do this because it is a subject I am deeply passionate about. You see the Senator Stephen Conroy the Communications Minister want to censor the internet, content deemed 'undesirable'. Conroy and his cronies have painted it as Government Vs Child pornographers, but it is so much, much more than that. It is a very real and very scary assault on free speech, which has the potential to damage the Economy, credibility and technological infrastructure of our country. Oscar Wilde said in ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ “times like these it becomes more than just a morale duty to speak ones mind, it becomes a pleasure”

Before I attempt to explain the effects of this filter, I will first do the grunt work and explain what the plan itself is. The government wants to filter the net at the ISP level (Internet service provider), it will consist of two tiers of filtering an opt out filter, which every computer will automatically have, which one can turn off with a phone call. But more worrying is the mandatory filter, that every Australian may soon be forced to use.

Listening to the people fighting tooth and nail to get the filter through one would be mistaken in thinking it would simply block child pornography. But it will also block access to pro euthanasia material, information on abortion, explanations of safe use of drugs (creating a public health hazard). The fact the government wants to block access to material that A. should be covered under freedom of speech and B. presents an argument for changing of government policy creates many moral issues. It is a worrying trend towards universal censorship.

But that is just about the least of it. It will also block access to material deemed ‘unsuitable’ for an adult audience, this means unrated content (material deemed to ‘vulgar’ for an R rating) like Flash games and video games. Here is just one example of a game that will be blocked; it features a graffiti artist who tags as a way of protesting the corruption as caused by the oppressive Orwellian government. The explanation? This could incite vandalism .

The filter will not even be effective at stopping child porn; anyone with any knowledge (including any child who has ever been in a primary or secondary school) will know how to sidestep the filter with a proxy. And the majority of child porn is not on the net; the vast, vast majority is on peer to peer sharing sites, which will not be affected by the filter.


Now is here is what it will do, it will cost the Australian taxpayer around 128 million dollars to put that in numeric form that is 128,000,000 dollars . Can you even comprehend that amount of money, because I sure as hell cant. The filter would also damage the economy, you see this plan would create a monopoly on Internet filtering, and would obliterate the opt in filter services of many companies, destroying jobs and harming the economy. The filter by many estimates would decrease the speed of the Internet by around 30-80 percent. And it would increase the cost of internet service.


Senator Conroy has been disingenuous in implying that such filters have been applied in the UK and other European countries, the truth is that only two countries have really applied comparable filters and they are err…. China and Iran. Now as a member of a democratic nation YOU yes YOU as a citizen must ask yourself, do you want Australia to appear on a list alongside China and Iran, a list of countries whose citizens have decided that their government can be the moral arbiters of what is and what is not suitable for their adult population.

The list of blocked sites will not be made public; this leaves it open to abuse EG politicians silencing their opponents, or businessmen obstructing their competition. But let us examine the alternative; were the list of sites made public, people who wanted to view child porn (and other legitimately illegal material) would be able to find it. So this is a case of damned if you do damned if you don’t.

Even child protection groups have condemned the policy. And it has been condemned by the leaders of three of the largest ISPs in Australia (Telstra, Inet and Internode) as being unworkable for various legal, technical and ethical reasons.
Polls have shown that 86% of the Australians polled opposed the policy.

So when you examine this filter you find a bad idea flawed from the ground up, it has been spun into a puritanical crusade against child pornography to disguise the fact it is a draconian unworkable idea made by people who don’t understand the internet, and either don’t see or don’t care about the repercussions of their plan. The people you are told to be scared of (the paedophiles, the terrorists) are not going to be stopped or obstructed by this, all it will do is inconvenience and fine those it is supposed to protect.
The whole thing is an excellent show of the complex, often perplexing almost always-infuriating art of spin.