Help. Internet Censorship Laws in Australia. Last Updated: 31 Mar 2006 "It is not the function of Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error. " - Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge This section provides information about on-line censorship legislation in Australia, that is, the C'th Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 and C'th Classification Act, and State/Territory Classification Acts. (For information about various other Australian laws restricting freedom of speech, such as Commonwealth Criminal Code offences, defamation laws, racial vilification laws, etc, refer to the topic listing on EFA's Censorship and Free Speech Page). Contents: Overview / Current Situation [Update 31 March 2006: See separate page for EFA's analysis of Labor's (ALP's) mandatory ISP filtering/blocking plan which was announced on 21 March 2006.]
EFA continues to oppose the Commonwealth/State & Territory censorship regime. Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007. Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet. The Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet. The Labor Party’s policy was announced prior to the Australian Election in November (release here) and was justified on the basis that the previous Government’s policy of providing free copies of NetNanny to all Australian households who wanted it didn’t adequately protect children. As recently as the week prior to the election, Labor Party candidates were telling those concerned about the proposed law that the censorship wouldn’t be compulsory, and that the “clean feed” would be opt-in, not opt-out. Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it.
The problem of course then becomes if you opt-out questions will be asked as to why you want out, which in itself may lead to Government monitoring. Australian Government Mandatory ISP Internet Filtering / Cen. This page provides comprehensive, historical, information about the Federal Labor Government's varying mandatory ISP blocking/filtering/censorship 'plans' from late 2007 to 8 November 2012.
A significantly different ISP-level blocking policy was announced on 9 November 2012, and information about that is available on a separate page: AU ISP blocking of domains on Interpol "Worst of" list. Overview From late 2007 until 8 November 2012, the Australian Federal Labor Government had a highly publicly controversial "plan" to mandate that ISPs block adults' access to Internet content, on a secret blacklist compiled by a government agency, that the Government deems unsuitable for adults.
Information about ISP blocking of the 'worst of the worst' is available on a separate page:AU ISP blocking of domains on Interpol "Worst of" list. The sole purpose was to require ISPs to (attempt to) block adults' access to content that the government deems unsuitable for adults. Contents: Introduction No. Move over, Australia: France taking 'Net censorship lead. Critics of government-mandated filtering schemes contend that such programs first focus on "child pornography" because it's such an unobjectionable target for censorship—but once the program is in place, it's much easier to extend it to more controversial areas, such as copyright protection.
At least the French have the decency to admit that this is what's happening. The French lower house, the National Assembly, has just passed a security bill known as LOPPSI2, and it's expected that the Senate will follow suit in the next few weeks. As we've previously reported, LOPPSI2 is a grab bag of security items that includes state-sanctioned computer Trojans, a massive new database of citizen data (dubbed "Pericles"), and a requirement that ISPs start censoring sites on a government blacklist. The Internet censorship provision has received the most coverage to date, and LOPPI2 has been quite controversial in France; it passed the National Assembly 312-214. About - Australian Spatial Data Directory.