Mudslinger's Corner

Rallies scheduled to take place throughout the country to protest govt plan for mandatory Internet filtering of “offensive and illegal material”by ISPs.

It all started as a voluntary effort to “protect children,” but quickly spiraled into an all out attempt by the Australian govt to make it mandatory for ISPs to filter the Internet of all “inappropriate content” and “offensive and illegal material.” It quickly deteriorated from an attempt to somehow safeguard children from things like child pornography to things like legal pornography and gambling and has made Australian citizens rightly upset.

Protests have been organized by groups like the Electronic Freedom Project and Digital Liberty Coalition, and will be held throughout the country on December 13th. The list of locations includes: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, and Perth.

Michael Malone, managing director iiNet, Australia’s largest ISP, has already agreed to a ‘ridiculous’ trial of the whole plan, giving it “hard numbers” to show just “how stupid it is,” but it may not be enough for a govt so bent on such a sweeping censorship plan for the country’s information and communication backbone that it is the Internet.

It’s important that all Aussies who care about censorship stand up, get involved, and join one of the rallies to voice their opinion on December 13th.