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After considerable legislative debate and global speculation over the fate of Australia’s involuntary Internet content filter, the Australian government announced today that it will be proceeding with the plan.
“The Government has recently announced that in 2010 it will introduce legislative amendments to require all ISPs in Australia to use ISP‑level filtering to block overseas hosted Refused Classification (RC) material on the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) RC Content list,” writes Australia’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
“Content defined under the National Classification Scheme as Refused Classification includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act.”
The type of material set to be caught by the act’s final version is a large step back from the nebulous “objectionable content” clause adopted by prior versions–a clause which Wikileaks revealed to be suffering from heavy abuse.
The filter will debut as a relatively sparse list of rejected websites, but will grow in response to ACMA complaints as well as “highly reputable” overseas sources which identify material that would fall under the nation’s “Refused Classification” status.
But not everyone is convinced of the plan’s efficacy, including Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), an organization similar to the United States’ EFF.
“Given the pilot’s modest goals, it was designed from the beginning to pass. Although it may address some technical issues, what it leaves out is far more important – exactly what will be blocked, who will decide, and why is it being attempted in the first place?”, Jacobs said.
“The Government knows this plan will not help Australian kids, nor will it aid in the policing of prohibited material. Given the problems in maintaining a secret blacklist and deciding what goes on it, we’re at a loss to explain the Minister’s enthusiasm for this proposal.”
The EFA also notes that the public has received no draft language or policy documentation in advance of the plan, making the filter as clandestine as it is ripe for puritanism.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the plan’s creator and leading advocate, is attempting to pass the initiative before next year’s elections. If he succeeds as expected, Australia will join countries like Communist China, North Korea and theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia, all of whom filter content for the “good of the people.”
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