I had to copy and paste the entire article, because the person who wrote it (Nick Farrell) did an absolutely fabulous job of writing it.
THE AUSTRALIANgovernment's plans to set up a Chinese style firewall and censor the web so that it only says good things is facing a backlash from important political activists.
The group which helped free David Hicks and abolish Work Choices scheme, GetUp, has now set its sights on the Government's censorship plans.
GetUp plans to run mainstream ads and offline action that will be as elaborate as its 'Free Hicks' campaign. A petition on its website has attracted over 22,000 signatures in just a day and GetUp said it had received more emails urging them to act on this issue than any other campaign in recent history.
Opposition parties and the Greens this week officially announced their opposition to the internet filtering plan, which critics like GetUp fear will slow the internet to a crawl and open the door to censorship of porn, anti-government views, pro-abortion sites and online gambling.
Obviously this sort of censorship is not the sort of thing Aussies can put up with. The nation which was built from the gene pool of Britain's 19th century underclasses is not one which wants to have those sorts of controls thrust upon them again.
Despite the fact that the move is about as popular as compulsory governmental anal probing, and about as likely to work as a supercomputer running Microsoft ME, the Government is pressing ahead with live filtering trials.
GetUp campaign director Ed Coper said he was certain his organisation's 'Save the Net' campaign would be "really big and ongoing". ยต
The original article can be found here: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/11/28/aussies-revolt-government
Showing posts with label freedom of speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of speech. Show all posts
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
As Requested: Internet Filtering
As requested by one of my blog followers, the links to save the net in Australia. Also, is a brief rant I have done, for your reading.
Imagine this:
• The internet is 87% slower. Or worse that dial up.
• The internet is more expensive – meaning we won’t be able to download as much.
• Several of your heaving accessed websites are blocked.
• You won’t be able to get help with ‘trial programs’ or program issues from me anymore.
Let me ask you:
You are needing to make an emergency call. You have a phone in front of you. All you have to do is pick it up, and ring. But you can’t do that, because the number you need to dial is considered ‘unsafe’.
It’s ‘unsafe’ for the overprotective parents that don’t personally take responsible for their kids internet usage, and instead say we need a nationwide ban. We won’t be able to look up anything eventually. It’s starting with topics like anorexia, euthanasia and gambling. Well consider this:
Anorexia – For high school I had to study this as part of my biology class. How would I access this information if its blocked? How would your future med students learn about it, if the government is stopping them from accessing it? Throughout history we have seen the ban on certain knowledge, and it has resulted in death, pain, slavery and suffering. During an economic crisis, and global warming, do we really want another issue to deal with?
This is really happening; testing has already begun. The government is stealing our rights.
Click here to save the net:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet
Even if you don’t care, please just add your name to the list. Do it for me, do it for your children, your friends and family. Because if you don’t even try, one day we are going to be living in a world where we cant even say hi and meet with our friends without being arrested.
Stop big brother in his tracks: Say no to internet filtering!
Our government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Take action to save the net today.
PS - The proposed scheme will pass all internet traffic through a government filter - it's like asking Australia Post to filter every letter sent in Australia. If you don’t classify as a ‘safe’ house address, you won’t get it. So much for all your privacy either, they read it all! Click here to save the net.
This is one very big step to stopping our freedom of speech!
Even if you don’t care, please just add your name to the list. Do it for me, do it for your children, your friends and family. Because if you don’t even try, one day we are going to be living in a world where we cant even say hi and meet with our friends without being arrested.
www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet
Imagine this:
• The internet is 87% slower. Or worse that dial up.
• The internet is more expensive – meaning we won’t be able to download as much.
• Several of your heaving accessed websites are blocked.
• You won’t be able to get help with ‘trial programs’ or program issues from me anymore.
Let me ask you:
You are needing to make an emergency call. You have a phone in front of you. All you have to do is pick it up, and ring. But you can’t do that, because the number you need to dial is considered ‘unsafe’.
It’s ‘unsafe’ for the overprotective parents that don’t personally take responsible for their kids internet usage, and instead say we need a nationwide ban. We won’t be able to look up anything eventually. It’s starting with topics like anorexia, euthanasia and gambling. Well consider this:
Anorexia – For high school I had to study this as part of my biology class. How would I access this information if its blocked? How would your future med students learn about it, if the government is stopping them from accessing it? Throughout history we have seen the ban on certain knowledge, and it has resulted in death, pain, slavery and suffering. During an economic crisis, and global warming, do we really want another issue to deal with?
This is really happening; testing has already begun. The government is stealing our rights.
Click here to save the net:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet
Even if you don’t care, please just add your name to the list. Do it for me, do it for your children, your friends and family. Because if you don’t even try, one day we are going to be living in a world where we cant even say hi and meet with our friends without being arrested.
Stop big brother in his tracks: Say no to internet filtering!
Our government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Take action to save the net today.
PS - The proposed scheme will pass all internet traffic through a government filter - it's like asking Australia Post to filter every letter sent in Australia. If you don’t classify as a ‘safe’ house address, you won’t get it. So much for all your privacy either, they read it all! Click here to save the net.
This is one very big step to stopping our freedom of speech!
Even if you don’t care, please just add your name to the list. Do it for me, do it for your children, your friends and family. Because if you don’t even try, one day we are going to be living in a world where we cant even say hi and meet with our friends without being arrested.
www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet
Rant: VERY serious Issue of Internet Filtering
As some of you may be aware, there is the debate of internet filtering as mandatory in Australia. By reviewing all the internet websites and forums about it, pretty much everyone in Australia is unhappy with the idea. In fact the only people who seem to like the idea are the people in power. This, I call, is power abuse.
We elect these people to represent us and our beliefs - and they are failing to do that on a VERY serious issue.
I do support our rights of speech. I do support our freedom.
Some key links where people debate the topic:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/24/2399876.htm - this website was very critical of the idea, as I am. I freely admit it. And I rebel in the chance to actually freely say it. If this plan goes through, I will no longer be able to purchase online. I will no longer be able to say what I want online. And the government will gain a signficant portion of control over the people.
http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2008/060 - funny how this website shows only the positive side of the tests. Funny, isn't it, how its the governments very official website. See the .gov.au? That means government. Doesn't that suggest they are already trying to influence us by providing what they think as 'only safe material for us to read'? What, do they think that reading the bad effects in a more 'postive' or 'neutral' light might make us cry - and that would be bad for us because we are all little children.
Well to them I say this:
You are trying to protect our children - good
You are taking our rights of freedom of speech, etc. - bad
You won't claim any damages this may cause for the economy - bad
You refuse to believe there are other solutions, like actual parenting - bad
You seem to almost view us, each member of Australia, as pathetic children - bad
You should realise that majority of Australia is teens and over - good/bad?
You should realise that Australia's population is aging, so there will be less children - look that means less 'kids' for you to protect
If you ain't there to stop your kids from looking at porn, well doesn't that make you a bad parent? Hey, maybe your at work all the time, fair enough. If you are trying to support your family, your doing good. But if you aint there to raise your kid, they have to do the job themselves. And the internet is a good place for them to start; they have all the resouces, biased and partially-unbiased, all around them. If your so worried teach them that not everything is completely true.
God, put them in high school where its drilled into your head for 5 long years! Oh, but that's right, you haven't learnt the stuff they did. After all, you went to school a good 20 to 50 years back. Well welcome to the world, alot has changed since then...
http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html - this website outlines how hypocritical our government is. The government claims they support people's privacy, free speech, etc. Yet if you read the article they violate that in almost every sense.
More about this later on, for sure. And no don't worry, this blog won't become a political run off. I will be including more of the normal content. But its good to throw a whole bunch of stuff in. After all, "its all you could ever need".
We elect these people to represent us and our beliefs - and they are failing to do that on a VERY serious issue.
I do support our rights of speech. I do support our freedom.
Some key links where people debate the topic:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/24/2399876.htm - this website was very critical of the idea, as I am. I freely admit it. And I rebel in the chance to actually freely say it. If this plan goes through, I will no longer be able to purchase online. I will no longer be able to say what I want online. And the government will gain a signficant portion of control over the people.
http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2008/060 - funny how this website shows only the positive side of the tests. Funny, isn't it, how its the governments very official website. See the .gov.au? That means government. Doesn't that suggest they are already trying to influence us by providing what they think as 'only safe material for us to read'? What, do they think that reading the bad effects in a more 'postive' or 'neutral' light might make us cry - and that would be bad for us because we are all little children.
Well to them I say this:
You are trying to protect our children - good
You are taking our rights of freedom of speech, etc. - bad
You won't claim any damages this may cause for the economy - bad
You refuse to believe there are other solutions, like actual parenting - bad
You seem to almost view us, each member of Australia, as pathetic children - bad
You should realise that majority of Australia is teens and over - good/bad?
You should realise that Australia's population is aging, so there will be less children - look that means less 'kids' for you to protect
If you ain't there to stop your kids from looking at porn, well doesn't that make you a bad parent? Hey, maybe your at work all the time, fair enough. If you are trying to support your family, your doing good. But if you aint there to raise your kid, they have to do the job themselves. And the internet is a good place for them to start; they have all the resouces, biased and partially-unbiased, all around them. If your so worried teach them that not everything is completely true.
God, put them in high school where its drilled into your head for 5 long years! Oh, but that's right, you haven't learnt the stuff they did. After all, you went to school a good 20 to 50 years back. Well welcome to the world, alot has changed since then...
http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html - this website outlines how hypocritical our government is. The government claims they support people's privacy, free speech, etc. Yet if you read the article they violate that in almost every sense.
More about this later on, for sure. And no don't worry, this blog won't become a political run off. I will be including more of the normal content. But its good to throw a whole bunch of stuff in. After all, "its all you could ever need".
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