Chairman Krudd - Stop internet censorship in Australia

The sort of content that is likely to be blocked initially includes: information about abortion, contraception and euthanasia, material pertaining to gay/lesbian issues, legal pornography i.e. basically anything that religious extremists hate.

Once the filter is in place, minor parties in the Senate will be able to demand that their own pet hates get filtered out. Web sites related to gambling would be a prime example; maybe drugs and alcohol too. It will always be easier for the government to amend the list of "unwanted" subjects later on than it will be to get the legislation and the technology in place initially. Conversely, therefore, the time for us to stop the filter is now, before it is in place.

Once the filter is in place, lobby groups will be able to demand that their own pet hates get filtered out, in return for donations or other support.

Thailand has a mandatory internet filter. A large number of pages are blocked because they criticise the king. Singapore too has a filter even though they don't need one because the government uses intimidatory litigation to silence its critics. The "gold standard" in censorship is China. These point the way for Chairman Krudd's Australia, once the filter is in place.

As always, it doesn't matter particularly whether the web page really does fall into one of the "unwanted" categories, because the list will be secret. The government isn't answerable to the courts or to us regarding whether a web page is "rightly" blocked.

Who determines what to block?

Normally some faceless bureaucrat inside Chairman Krudd's government will determine this. However the plan also involves accepting web pages to block from overseas. Foreign governments will be allowed to influence blocking. Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), who are accountable to absolutely noone, let alone the Australian people, will also be allowed to influence blocking.

Bad legislation is forever

Don't expect a future government to repeal these laws. Once we have ceded this power to the government, we will not get it back. The present government will have taken all the political pain and there is no incentive for any future government to give up its power.

Supporting censorship is always a dangerous game to play. You may happen to agree with everything that Chairman Krudd's government is planning to suppress today, but the government may change and the issues being censored may change.