Censorship of the internet: Protecting the innocent or attacking the last bastion of freedom?

I’m sure to many of you, my opinions soon to follow are already very clear. I do not believe the government or any government for that matter should censor the internet. It is one of the last sources of unbiased truth and freedom of information left in the world, if not the last, with the rest of humanities resources of information being used for propaganda and control. Be it the capitalist conglomerates of the world, or the governments of the western world (who appear to be sliding into fascism once again: Britain is a good example here), our venues of information are no longer safe.

The internet is our only source of freedom left, but we may soon no longer have that. In Australia, Senator Conroy, the minister for information, is attempting to place a nationwide filter on what we can view online. The proposed filter is apparently supposed to be for our youth, protecting them from illegal content such as child pornography and the like. It sure sounds good; however there are many faults here, which will be outlined below.

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The filter blocks more than just the child porn Senator Conroy has mentioned. A leaked blacklist (link) was released online a couple of years ago, and it contains more than just the content he has mentioned. Also listed are websites like 4chan (!). As can be plainly seen, Mr Conroy seems to be deceiving the general public. Without the power of information that is the Internet, we would never have found out his underhanded tactics. It has since been revealed that even websites advocating or even providing information on subjects such as Euthanasia may be banned as well.

In my opinion, it would only be a matter of time before useful websites such as Wikileaks would be banned, simply because the government disagrees with the views and information that it provides. Internet facism? Totalitarianism? I think so. How long before the internet becomes yet another capitalist propaganda tool, full of biased news reports, one sided views on governments and wars, and policed to prevent anyone having a true say? Not too long if Senator Conroy has his way.

·         It fails to prevent illegal content from being made; in fact it doesn’t even prevent people from viewing it! If the government, and the increasingly mentally deficient looking Senator Conroy, had done any sort of research as to HOW the internet bloody works, they would have realised blocking a few website URLS does near nothing to prevent child pornography and the like from being spread. This, my friends, is due to a little thing called Peer-to-Peer networks. Ever used a program called Limewire? Pretty much that. That is what the serious child pornographers and viewers make use of to spread that filth. And that is something

THAT IS NOT COVERED UNDER THE PROPOSED FILTER. Score 1 for the government, you’re going after the wrong source...AGAIN. Seems to becoming a regular thing these days; Wars, Internet filters, elections...they can’t get it right.

·         Even victims of child abuse are against it! I was initially surprised at this, wouldn’t have thought victims would be against it. But when I heard their opinions on the filter and why it would be a bad thing, I could easily see what they meant and now agree 100%

Basically, their argument was that the filter does nothing to prevent the abuse from happening, does nothing to aid in the prosecution of these criminals. And in fact, aids them by removing it from public eye, pretty much preventing the websites from being reported and acted upon in the first place. Makes sense doesn’t it? Senator Conroy is unintentionally aiding child pornographers! And I thought my respect for him and the government couldn’t go any lower.

I really hope that the ‘proposed’ filter does not go further than it already has. Let’s keep it as a proposition and nothing else please, an idiotic idea that should be given no more credibility by even considering it. However, IF it does go any further, I am more than happy to fight for my rights as an online citizen, for the rights and freedoms of all who use the internet.