Internet censorship in Australia

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Main article: Internet censorship by country

Internet censorship in Australia currently consists of a regulatory regime under which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the power to enforce content restrictions on Internet content hosted within Australia, and maintain a "black-list" of overseas websites which is then provided for use in filtering software.

Since October 2008, the governing Australian Labor Party has proposed to extend Internet censorship to a system of mandatory filtering of overseas websites which are, or potentially would be, "refused classification" (RC) in Australia. This means that internet service providers would be required to block access to such content for all users. As of June 2010, legislation to enact this policy still has not been drafted.^[1] The proposal to introduce mandatory filtering has generated substantial opposition, with a number of concerns being raised by opponents and only a few groups strongly supporting the policy. Such legislation may therefore have difficulty passing through the Senate.^[1][2][3][4] With the announcement made on 5 August 2010 by Joe Hockey that the Coalition parties will not vote in favour of the policy should the Labor party be re-elected,^[5] it is now virtually impossible for the filtering scheme to pass through the Senate.

In November 2010, Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy (DBCDE) released a document indicating that the earliest date any new legislation could reach parliament was mid-2013.

Current status (Federal law)

A collection of both federal and state laws apply to Internet content in Australia.

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

The provisions of Schedule 5 and Schedule 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 inserted in 1999 and 2007^[6] allow the Australian Communications and Media Authority to effectively ban some content from being hosted within Australia. Under this regime, if a complaint is issued about material "broadcast" on the Internet the ACMA is allowed to examine the material under the guidelines for film and video.

The content is deemed to be "prohibited" where it is (or in ACMA's judgement likely would be):

• refused classification, or classified X18+
• classified R18+, and not protected by an adult verification system
• classified MA15+ and not protected by an adult verification system, where the user has paid to access the content.

Where content is deemed to be prohibited, the ACMA is empowered to issue local sites with a take-down notice under which the content must be removed; failure to do so can result in fines of up to $11,000 per day.^[7] If the site is hosted outside Australia, the content in question is added to a blacklist of banned URLs. This list of banned Web pages is then added to filtering software (encrypted), which must be offered to all consumers by their Internet Service Providers. In March 2009, this blacklist was leaked online.^[8]

A number of take down notices have been issued to some Australian-hosted websites. According to Electronic Frontiers Australia in at least one documented case, the hosting was merely shifted to a server in the United States, and the DNS records updated so that consumers may never have noticed the change.^{[citation needed]}

Suicide Related Materials Offences Act 2006

In 2006 the Federal Parliament passed the Suicide Related Materials Offences Act, which makes it illegal to use communications media such as the Internet to discuss the practical aspects of suicide.^[9][10]

Copyright Legislation Amendment Bill 2004

The Copyright Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 was passed on 9 December 2004 by the Australian Senate, and extended copyright reform beyond the Australian-US free trade agreement (FTA). The impact will be felt most heavily by Internet service providers. The Internet Industry Association and EFA are actively opposing these efforts.^[11][12]

State and territory laws

Some state governments have laws that ban the transmission of material unsuitable for minors.^[13][14] In New South Wales, Internet censorship legislation was introduced in 2001 which criminalises online material which is unsuitable for minors. In 2002, the New South Wales Standing Committee on Social Issues issued a report recommending that the legislation be repealed, and in response the New South Wales government stated that the legislation "will be neither commenced nor repealed" until after the review of the Commonwealth Internet censorship legislation had been completed.^[15]

Notable examples

In 2002, New South Wales Police Minister Michael Costa attempted, without success, to shut down three protest websites by appealing to the then-communications minister Richard Alston.^[16] The Green Left Weekly stated these were Melbourne Indymedia and S11 websites, and that the Australian Broadcasting Authority (the predecessor to ACMA) cleared them of breaching government regulations on 30 October 2002.^[17]

Also in 2002, and under the terms of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Federal Court ordered Dr Fredrick Töben to remove material from his Australian website which denied aspects of The Holocaust and vilified Jews.^[18][19]

In 2006, Richard Neville published a "spoof" website that had a fictional transcript of John Howard apologising to Australians for the Iraq War. The website was forcibly taken offline by the government with no recourse.^[20]

After the devastating bushfires in February 2009, details about an alleged arsonist were posted online by bloggers. Victorian police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe has asked the state Director of Public Prosecutions to examine the possibility of removing these blogs from the web, as they might jeopardise any court case.^[21]

In March 2009, after a user posted a link to a site on ACMA's blacklist on the Whirlpool forum, Whirlpool's service provider, Bulletproof Networks, was threatened with fines of $11,000 per day if the offending link was not removed.^[7] The same link in an article on EFA's website was removed in May 2009 after ACMA issued a "link-deletion notice", and the EFA took the precautionary step of also removing indirect links to the material in question.^[22]

The 2009 winner of the George Polk award for videography shows footage of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan being shot and dying during Iran protests. This footage has also been declared "prohibited content" by ACMA, attracting fines of $11,000 per day for any Australian website which posts a link to the video.^[23]

After the Australian government announced plans to mandate web filtering in Australia in December 2009, an anti-censorship website hosted on stephenconroy.com.au (The full name of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) was taken offline by auDA after only 24 hours of being published online.^[24][25]

In October 2000, Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) attempted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to obtain documents relating to the implementation of the web filter. While a few were released, many were not, and in 2003 new legislation, "Communications Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002", was passed by the Liberal government and four independents, and opposed by The Greens and the Australian Labor Party. While the stated reason for the bill was to prevent people accessing child pornography by examining the blocked sites, this bill exempted whole documents from FOI, many of which did not reference prohibited content at all. EFA state that the bill was designed to prevent further public scrutiny of web filtering proposals.^[26][27]

In 2006, Australia had a good flow of information online compared to most other countries

Proposed future legislation (mandatory filtering)

Proposed Australian laws on Internet censorship are sometimes referred to as the Great Australian Firewall, Rabbit Proof Firewall^[28] (a reference to the Australian Rabbit-proof fence), Firewall Australia or Great Firewall Reef (a reference to Great Barrier Reef and the Great Firewall of China)^[29]

History

In 1999, the Federal Government attempted to get an Internet censorship regime together to gain support from minority senators to assist with the sale of Telstra, but this censorship plan did not work.^[30]

In 2001, CSIRO was commissioned to examine Internet content filtering. The report focused primarily on evaluating the effectiveness of client-side filtering schemes (which were generally ineffective), but also discussed some of the difficulties with ISP-based filtering^[31]

In March 2003, the Fairfax papers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald reported the results of a survey taken by The Australia Institute of 200 children, which found that many of them had found pornography on the Internet. Over the next few days was a storm of media and political attention, and there were calls for finer Internet filters and tougher censorship laws. Analysis of the report showed little new material, and only 2% of girls had admitted being exposed to pornography, while the figure for boys was 38%; such a difference between boys and girls would seem to indicate that inadvertent exposure was rare, contrary to the conclusions of the report. After the controversy died down, no new action resulted from the new report, media attention, or political speeches.^[30]

In 2003, the Labor Party opposed filtering at the ISP level, with Labor Senator Kate Lundy stating

"Unfortunately, such a short memory regarding the debate in 1999 about Internet content has led the coalition to already offer support for greater censorship by actively considering proposals for unworkable, quick fixes that involve filtering the Internet at the ISP level."^[32]

Shortly before the 2004 federal election, two political parties issued new policies on Internet censorship. The Australian Labor Party's policy involved voluntary adherence by users. The Family First Party released a far stricter policy of mandatory filtering at the Internet service provider level.^[33]

The Australian Family Association petitioned the Australian Federal Government in 2004 to further restrict access by children to pornographic material via the Internet. The petition was submitted in December 2004.

On 21 March 2006, the Labor party committed to requiring all ISPs to implement a mandatory Internet blocking system applicable to “all households, and to schools and other public Internet points” to “prevent users from accessing any content that has been identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority”.^[34]

On the same day, the then communications minister Helen Coonan stated that to

“filter the Internet will only result in slowing down the Internet for every Australian without effectively protecting children from inappropriate and offensive content”^[34]

Policy of current Federal Government

On 31 December 2007, Stephen Conroy announced the Federal Government's intention to introduce an ISP-based filter to censor "inappropriate material" from the Internet to protect children. In this announcement, it was stated that adults could opt out of the filter to receive uncensored access to the Internet.^[35]

In May 2008, the government commenced an $82 million “cybersafety plan” which included an additional mandatory filter with no opt-out provision. This ISP-based filter aims to stop adults from downloading content that is illegal to possess in Australia, such as child pornography or materials related to terrorism.^[36]

In March 2009, Stephen Conroy dismissed suggestions that the Government would use the filter to crack down on political dissent as "conspiracy theories". He stated that the filter would only be used to remove "refused classification" (RC) content, using the same rationale as existing television, radio and print publications, and that the Senate could be relied upon to provide rigorous assessment of any proposed legislation.^[37] However, Labor's policy statement on the issue ^[38] contradicts this. It is also contrary to an earlier ministerial release in 2008.^[39]

The most recent explanation of the government's position on this issue is provided on the ministry website.^[40] This clearly states that only ISP-level filtering of (designated) refused classification (RC) material will be mandatory under their policy. However, ISP's will be encouraged to offer ISP-level filtering of 'adult content' as an optional (commercial) service to their customers. Such an optional extra service is aimed at parents trying to protect their children from 'undesirable' content that would otherwise be available, because it would not be RC (e.g. it might receive a classification of "R").

Labor Senator Kate Lundy said in January 2010 that she is lobbying within the party for an "opt-out" filter, describing it as the "least worst" option.^[41] In February 2010 she said she would propose the opt-out option when the filtering legislation goes before caucus.^[42]

Stephen Conroy has stated that 85% of Internet Service Providers, including Telstra, Optus, iPrimus and iiNet, welcome the Internet filter.^[43] In response, Steve Dalby, iiNet's chief regulatory officer, stated that iiNet as a company does not support the Internet filter, and never has.^[44]

On 9 July 2010, Stephen Conroy announced that any mandatory filtering would be delayed until at least 2011.^[45]

In June 2011 two Australian ISPs, Telstra and Optus, confirmed they would voluntary block access to a list of child abuse websites provided by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and more websites on a list compiled by unnamed international organizations from mid-year.^[46]

Opposition policies and statements

The Liberal Party

In February 2009, then opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin obtained independent legal advice confirming that a mandatory censorship regime would require new legislation.^[32] In March 2009, after the ACMA blacklist was leaked and iiNet withdrew from the filtering trials, he stated that Stephen Conroy was "completely botching the implementation of this filtering policy".^[47]

In March 2010, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey attacked the filter, saying "What we have in the government’s Internet filtering proposals is a scheme that is likely to be unworkable in practice. But more perniciously it is a scheme that will create the infrastructure for government censorship on a broader scale". ^[48] During the 2010 Federal Election, Liberal communications spokesman Tony Smith announced that "a Coalition government will not introduce a mandatory ISP level filter", with Joe Hockey also announcing an intention to vote against the policy if Labor is re-elected. ^[49]

The Greens

The Greens do not support the Internet filter, and Greens senator Scott Ludlam predicts that due to obstruction in the Senate, the legislation will not be introduced until after the next Federal Election.^[48]

At the end of 2008 he asked questions in parliament related to the filtering trial, for which the Government provided answers in January 2009:^[50]

• When asked about the stated public demand for Internet filtering, the government responded that the filtering was an election commitment
• The Internet filter would be easy to bypass using technological measures
• 674 out of 1370 blocked sites on the mandatory list relate to child pornography; 506 sites would be classified as R18+ or X18+, despite the fact that such content is legal to view in Australia. The remaining 190 sites from this number on the blacklist can be viewed at the full revealed blacklists on Wikileaks.

Ludlam believes that the Labor party may have hit a wall of "technical impossibility", and the filter does not suit its purpose:

"This isn't a great advertisement for the workability of any large scale scheme. The proposal has always been unpopular, now perhaps the Government is starting to come to grips with what the industry has been saying all along: if your policy objective is to protect children on-line, this is not the way to go about it."^[50]

Despite their lack of support for the filter, The Greens preselected Clive Hamilton, whose think-tank The Australia Institute first suggested an ISP-based Internet filter,^[30] for the by-election in the seat of Higgins.

Independents and minor parties

In October 2008, Family First senator Senator Steven Fielding was reported to support the blocking of hardcore pornography and fetish material under the Government's plans to filter access to the Internet.^[51] A Family First spokeswoman^[who?] confirmed that the party wants X-rated content banned for everyone, including adults.

A spokesman for independent senator Nick Xenophon said

"should the filtering plan go ahead, he would look to use it to block Australians from accessing overseas online casino sites, which are illegal to run in Australia".^[52]

Senator Xenophon has, however, stated that he has serious concerns about the plan, and in February 2009 withdrew all support, stating that "the more evidence that's come out, the more questions there are on this." He believes that money would be better spent educating parents and cracking peer-to-peer groups used by paedophiles.^[32][53]

A political party associated with The Eros Foundation, the Australian Sex Party, was launched in November 2008 and plans to campaign on issues including censorship and the federal Government's promised Internet filter.^[54]

Two Blacklists

As of October 2008, the plan includes two blacklists, the first used to filter "illegal" content, and the second used to filter additional content unsuitable for children. The first filter will be mandatory for all users of the Internet, while the second filter allows opting out. The government will not release details of the content on either list,^[55] but has stated that the mandatory filter would include at least 10,000 sites, and include both the ACMA blacklist and UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) blacklist. In December 2008 the IWF list caused problems when the Wikipedia article Virgin Killer was added to the list, as it prevented many people in the UK from being able to edit Wikipedia.

The ACMA definitions of "prohibited content" give some idea of what could potentially be blacklisted. Online content prohibited by ACMA includes:

• Any online content that is classified RC or X 18+ by the Classification Board. This includes real depictions of actual sexual activity, child pornography, depictions of bestiality, material containing excessive violence or sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use, and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act.
• Content which is classified R 18+* and not subject to a restricted access system that prevents access by children. This includes depictions of simulated sexual activity, material containing strong, realistic violence and other material dealing with intense adult themes.^[56]

In answer to a question in Parliament in October 2008, the government in January 2009 stated that the black list contained 1370 websites. 674 were related to child pornography, and the remainder would be classified as R18+ and X18+.^[50]

Two websites are known to be on the ACMA blacklist after they were submitted to ACMA for review. When ACMA responded with the advice that these sites had been placed upon its blacklist, ACMA's response was in turn posted back to the web by the original submitters, with the purpose of demonstrating that political content would be censored by the mandatory filter. One was an anti-abortion website, with details posted to Whirlpool, and the other was a copy of Denmark's own Internet blacklist, with both the blacklist and ACMA's response posted on Wikileaks. The web hosting company for Whirlpool, Bulletproof networks, was threatened with $11,000 in fines per day if the link was not removed, so Whirlpool voluntarily removed the link to the restricted site. Civil liberties campaigners regard the inclusion of these sites on the blacklist as a demonstration that it is not difficult to get a site placed on the blacklist, and that the blacklist includes sites which are themselves not illegal to view.^{[7][57][58][59]}

Leaking of the ACMA blacklist

18 March 2009: WikiLeaks publishes a list which is

"derived from the ACMA list for the use of government-approved censorship software in its "ACMA-only" mode."^[60] Included in the list were "the websites of a Queensland dentist, a tuckshop convener and a kennel operator".^[61]

19 March 2009: Australian media sources report that the ACMA blacklist has been leaked to WikiLeaks

"The seemingly innocuous websites were among a leaked list of 2300 websites the Australian Communications and Media Authority was planning to ban to protect children from graphic pornography and violence."^[61]

ACMA claimed that the list which appeared on the Wikileaks website was not the ACMA 'blacklist', as it contained 2300 URLs. ACMA claimed the ACMA list contained only 1061 URLs in August 2008, and has at no stage contained 2300.^[62]

The ACMA report on the issue noted the similarities between the two lists, yet addressed only the claim reported in the media that the list was the blacklist. The report only contains the following claims about the two lists:

• "The list provided to ACMA differs markedly in length and format to the ACMA blacklist."^[62]
• "The ACMA blacklist has at no stage been 2300 URLs in length and at August 2008 consisted of 1061 URLs."^[62]

20 March 2009: WikiLeaks published another list, this time closer to the length published by ACMA. Wikileaks believes that the list is up-to-date as of the time of publication^[63]

25 March 2009: Stephen Conroy has reportedly stated that this list closely resembles the ACMA list.^{[64][dead link]}.

26 March 2009: The above report of 25 March 2009 was followed by the Minister's statement on the ABC's 'Q&A' television program the following day^[65] that "the second list which has appeared appears to be closer [to the true black-list]. I don't actually know what's on the list but I'm told by [...] ACMA it appears to be closer to the actual, legitimate list."
On the program Senator Conroy also explained that the seemingly inexplicable censoring of a dentist's website was due to subversion of the website by the Russian mafia, who had inserted RC material.
In the same discussion Bill Henson's website, despite the PG rating given to his photographs by the same body, appeared on the blacklist due to a technical error according to Stephen Conroy^[65][66] The ACMA has since released a statement claiming the technical error was a "computer system caching error" and further stated "found that this is the only URL where a caching error resulting in the URL being incorrectly added to the list."^[67]

Live filtering trials

The government has committed to trials of the mandatory Internet filter before implementation.

On 28 July 2008, an ACMA report entitled “Closed Environment Testing of ISP-Level Internet Content Filtering”^[68] showed performance and accuracy problems with the six unnamed ISP-based filters trialled.^[68] EFA analysis of the report showed that:^[69][70]

• One filter caused a 22% drop in speed even when it was not performing filtering;
• Only one of the six filters had an acceptable level of performance (a drop of 2% in a laboratory trial), the others causing drops in speed of between 21% and 86%;
• The most accurate filters were often the slowest;
• All filters tested had problems with under-blocking, allowing access to between 2% and 13% of material that they should have blocked; and
• All filters tested had serious problems with over-blocking, wrongly blocking access to between 1.3% and 7.8% of the websites tested.^[70]
• The trial tested speed on a simple 'black listed or not' basis for all simulated clients on all systems, yet the report outlines the ability of the filters to provide customised filtering to each client (as would be required by the two levels of filtering which ACMA is proposing) which would significantly impact test results.^[68]

In November 2008 the Government hired Melbourne company ENEX TestLab, an RMIT spin-off, to design a live pilot test on a real network.^[71] In this trial, in which several ISPs have expressed an interest, 10,000 blacklisted "unwanted" websites would be blocked in addition to 1,300 websites identified by ACMA.^[72] As an incentive for participation, the department states that participating ISPs

"will be recognised for their participation in the Pilot. This recognition will strengthen their brand image with the community."

These ISPs will also be allowed to keep any software and hardware purchased by the government for the trial. The trial may include some ability to block or alert on the presence of proxies. Both filtered and unfiltered users will be surveyed as part of the trial.^[73]

ISPs participating in the Live Trial will be required to enter into a non disclosure agreement with ACMA.^[74]

Communications from Senator Conroy's office have indicated that the live trial will occur without the participation of any customers due to concerns about the impact on network performance of filtering 10,000 URLs. Telstra and Internode have stated that they will not take part in the trial. iiNet has stated that it will take part in the trial only to show that the filtering will not work. Optus has stated that it will only test a heavily cut-down filtering model containing only 1300 URLs in a limited geographic area, and customers will be allowed to opt out.

At the end of 2008, Stephen Conroy anticipated that the live trial would test the filtering of Bittorrent traffic,^[75] but in March 2009 he stated that the proposed filters would not be effective on peer-to-peer traffic.^[76]

The trial was originally scheduled to be commenced in December 2008, but, after the existence of a report critical of the trial became known, the trial was pushed back.^[77] On 11 February 2009 a new filtering trial was announced, initially with the ISPs iPrimus Telecommunications, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1. Testing with each ISP will take place for at least six weeks once filtering equipment has been obtained and installed, and iPrimus expects the trial to begin in late April or early May with five or ten thousand participants. The trial will be opt-in, with ISPs asking for volunteers, although all WebShield customers already receive a filtered service. None of the top three ISPs, Telstra, Optus and iiNet, have been included in the trial, although both iiNet and Optus did expect to be involved at a later time. iiNet withdrew itself from consideration for the trial in March 2009, with Michael Malone giving as reasons the media storm around the leaked blacklist, the changing nature of policy, and "confused" explanations of the trial's purpose.^{[78][79][80][81]}

In July 2009 some results from the trials began to emerge. Five of the nine participating ISPs reported minimal speed or technical problems associated with the trials. Some ISPs reported that thousands of their members had voluntarily participated in the trials; others, that less than 1% had participated, and that this was not a representative sample. Some customers complained about over-blocking, and withdrew from the trial. One example was the blocking of the pornography website redtube.com: ACMA refused to confirm or deny if the site was on the list, or if the site was legal.^[82] Leading Australian statistic experts, however, have labelled the trials as unscientific, lacking in proper methodology, unrepresentative and "about the worst way you can do it".^[83]

In December 2009, the results of the filtering trial were released. Stephen Conroy stated that "The report into the pilot trial of ISP-level filtering demonstrates that blocking RC-rated material can be done with 100 percent accuracy and negligible impact on Internet speed"^[84] However, concerns have been raised about the report: only a small minority of ISP users participated; the trial did not test using any high-speed Internet connections similar to those available with the National Broadband Network; there is evidence that the filter was evaded; and with only 600-700 sites on the RC blacklists, then the effect of the filter would be marginal at best.^[85]

Filtering Technology

The Swedish vendor NetClean reported that its own product, WhiteBox, will be trialled in Australia.^[86] WhiteBox is a hybrid filtering technology which routes web traffic, for IP addresses known to host objectionable material, through a transparent proxy.^[87]

Some risks and limitations of hybrid filters have been identified, including heavy congestion when blocks are applied to busy web servers, and a procedure to use the filter itself to identify all sites on the blacklist.^[88]

Some vendors^[who?] have approached smaller ISPs and offered to provide them with required equipment to take part in the filtering trials.^[50]

UK IWF blockage of Wikipedia

Main article: Internet Censorship in the United Kingdom

The IWF blacklist will form part of the mandatory blacklist used in Australia. In December 2008, hybrid filtering technology implemented by UK providers^[89] caused disruption of Wikipedia operations in the UK when a Wikipedia page was added to the IWF watchlist.^[90] When Wikipedia blocked UK vandals by their IP address, this block affected all users coming from these IP addresses. As these IP addresses belonged to the filter proxies, some Wikipedia users in the UK, depending on their ISP, attempting to edit an article without a login name were blocked. Some proxies also collapsed under load generated by Wikipedia traffic.^[91]

After widespread coverage, the IWF removed the Wikipedia page from its blacklist, citing the availability of the image on other websites as a factor:

"IWF’s overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the Internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect ... We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users."^[92]

Opinion Polling

In February 2010 ABC's Hungry Beast program commissioned McNair Ingenuity Research to perform a telephone poll of 1,000 Australians.^[93] Key results were

• To the proposition We need Government regulation of content on the Internet the same as we have Government regulation of content for other media 62% agreed, 35% disagreed.

• Having a mandatory Government Internet filter that would automatically block all access in Australia, to overseas websites containing material that is Refused Classification? Refused Classification was defined as Images and information about one or more of the following: child sexual abuse, bestiality, sexual violence, gratuitous, exploitative or offensive sexual fetishes, detailed instructions on or promotion of crime, violence or use of illegal drugs. 80% were in favour, 19% against.

• A Government appointed body determining whether a website is appropriate for you to visit? 50% in favour, 46% against.

• If a mandatory Internet Filter is established, are you in favour or not in favour of the community being advised which websites have been Refused Classification and the reason why they have been refused classification? 91% in favour, 8% against.

• Some opponents of the Government’s mandatory Internet Filter are concerned that if it were put in place, future Governments could use Internet Filtering technology to restrict free speech or block other forms of website content they don’t approve of. Do you share this concern? 70% concerned, 27% unconcerned.

The wide variation to answers to essentially the same question can be attributed to variations in the wording of the questions asked.^{[citation needed]} The results were initially reported as "80pc back web filter: poll" despite the fact that 46% were against "a government body determining whether a website is appropriate to visit".^[94] The question asked were whether respondents supported the results despite the evidence that the filter will not effectively achieve these results, respondents were not made aware of the limitations of such a filter.

In February 2009 a national telephone poll of 1,100 people was conducted by Galaxy and commissioned by GetUp!. It found that only 5 per cent of respondents want ISPs to be responsible for protecting children online, and only 4 per cent want Government to have this responsibility.^[32]

In March 2010 the results of the Whirlpool Australia broadband survey 2009 were published. This survey was of 21,755 experienced Internet users, and only 8% were in favour of the mandatory filter.^[95]

In May 2010 the results of a study commissioned by the Safer Internet Group were published. The Safer Internet Group includes Google, Internet Industry Association, iiNet, Australian Council of State School Organisations and the Australian Library and Information Association. 39 people participated in four focus group interviews. The study stated that while people were aware of the pending filter legislation, they did not understand its details. When details of the Government's proposal was explained, along with the possible alternatives, enthusiasm for the filter dropped.^[96]

Anti-censorship campaigns

Protests involving hundreds of people were held on 1 November 2008, with people in all capital cities nationwide marching on state Parliaments,^[97] and on 13 December 2008, in all capital cities.^[98] The Digital Liberty Coalition organised these protests, declaring an intent to rally continuously until censorship as a whole is taken off the table.^[99][100]

The Internet-based political activism organisation, GetUp!, which has previously run mainstream campaigns action against Work Choices and to free David Hicks, is backing the offline action of the DLC to oppose the web censorship plan. GetUp! first called for donations during December 2008 to raise awareness of Internet censorship in Australia. The group raised an unprecedented $30,000 before the end of the appeal's first day.^[97]

GetUp! teamed up with award winning,^[101] non-traditional and digital creative agency Fnuky Advertising to launch a campaign in Australia to raise awareness of the Australian Government's flawed plans to introduce web censorship. The campaign impersonated the Australian Federal Government by presenting web censorship as a mock consumer product branded as Censordyne,^[102] a parody of the toothpaste brand, Sensodyne. Fnuky Advertising's Creative Director, David Campbell selected toothpaste as the platform for the campaign after Stephen Conroy stated the purpose of web censorship in Australia was to 'Fight Moral Decay'. The Censordyne campaign was launched online during July 2009 by a single Twitter post by fake Stephen Conroy, a popular impersonator of the Australian Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy. The campaign featured an online video,^[103] a Censordyne product website ^[104] and a Censordyne search engine.^[105] Within 24 hours of launch, the words GetUp and Censordyne were the number 2 and 3 most talked about brands on Twitter worldwide. The campaign received widespread coverage in most major Australian newspapers and news websites. Censordyne become a topic of discussion on Nova 96.9 radio in Sydney and was featured on the Australian ABC television program Insiders.

GetUp! raised over $45,000 in donations from the general public during July 2009 to see the Censordyne commercial on TV and on Qantas flights during the month of August 2009, where all Australian politicians would be travelling to Canberra. Following the Censordyne campaign launch, Qantas chose to censor the anti-censorship campaign from their flights.^[106][107]

Response

The debate over Internet filtering has incited some tension in Australia, with threatening phone calls and emails being received by advocates of both sides of the debate.^[108]

In a speech in January 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accuses countries with Internet censorship of breaching the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and the Australian filter literally fits her definition for censorship. Stephen Conroy welcomed Clinton's speech, and agrees with her that "freedom of expression has its limits". Colin Jacobs responded in turn to note that while there are limits to free speech, Clinton had stated that the advantages of the Internet would be jeopardised by introducing censorship.^[109] As part of a diplomatic assault by the USA on Internet censorship in many countries, US State Department spokesman Noel Clay has raised concerns about the filter plan with Australian officials.^[110]

The leaders of three of Australia's largest ISPs (Telstra, iiNet and Internode) have stated in an interview that the web filtering proposal simply cannot work for various technical, legal and ethical reasons.^[111] The managing director of iiNet, Michael Malone, has said of Stephen Conroy "This is the worst Communications Minister we've had in the 15 years since the [Internet] industry has existed," and plans to sign up his ISP for participation in live filtering trials by 24 December to provide the Government with "hard numbers" demonstrating "how stupid it [the filtering proposal] is."^[112]

Dale Clapperton, then chairperson of EFA, argued that the Labor party cannot implement the clean feed proposal without either new legislation and the support of the Australian Senate, or the assistance of the Internet Industry Association. As the Liberals and Greens have both stated that they will not support legislation, it can only be implemented with the support of the IIA.^[113]

International lobby group Netchoice, which is backed by companies including eBay, AOL Time Warner, Oracle Corporation and some trade associations^[who?], is likely to oppose the mandatory filter.^[71] Google opposes the filter primarily because the scope of content to be filtered is too wide,^[114] and is likely to delay the introduction of Google TV to Australia because of technical concerns about the filter.^[115]

Internode engineer Mark Newton was the subject of a letter of complaint from Stephen Conroy's office for his participation in a Whirlpool forum showing the negative impact of the filter on Internet access speeds.^[116]

Some child welfare groups ( Save the Children / National Children's & Youth Law Centre ^[117] ) have attacked the filtering plan ^[118] as ineffective, stating that resources would be better spent elsewhere, and agreeing with the opposing position presented by Australia's ISPs. Other child welfare groups continue to support the filters.^[119] In 2008, ChildWise defended the plan as "a victory for common sense,"^[36]

NSW Young Labor has abandoned the web filtering plan, passing a motion rejecting Conroy's plans, and calling on him to adopt a voluntary, opt-in, system.^[97]

Colin Jacobs, vice-chairman of Electronic Frontiers Australia, said that the pitfalls of mandatory ISP filtering were illustrated by the problems in the UK caused by the blocking of a single Wikipedia page. He also said of the IWF blacklist:

"In Australia, not only would the Government have the ability to secretly add any site to our blacklist, but an unaccountable foreign-based organisation would as well".

Conservative South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi does not support the mandatory web filter. He considers Stephen Conroy's plan to be "so devoid of detail" that it is impossible to form an opinion on it, and says

"Parental responsibility cannot and should not be abrogated to government - if it is, our society will only become weaker ... Yes, illegal content should be banned from the web ... but it is wrong to give the government a blank cheque to determine what is appropriate for us to view on the Internet."^[120]

Clive Hamilton, a senior ethics professor at the Australian National University whose think tank the Australia Institute was responsible for the initial media attention for a mandatory Internet filter in 2003, argues

"The laws that mandate upper speed limits do not stop people from speeding, does that mean that we should not have those laws? ... We live in a society, and societies have always imposed limits on activities that it deems are damaging. There is nothing sacrosanct about the Internet."^[36][121]

Despite proposing the filter, he has been chosen by The Greens to stand in the Federal seat of Higgins.^[122]

Retired Justice Michael Kirby believes that it is a bad example for the government of a democratic country like Australia to take control of what people hear and what information they get, and made comparisons to the situation in Iran and Burma^[123]

In an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Reporters Without Borders states that the web filter is not the solution to combating child sex abuse, and the plan entails risks to freedom of expression. The blocking of websites by ACMA, rather than a Judge, is in contravention of laws. The criteria for blocking "inappropriate" websites is too vague, and it would be a dangerous censorship option to target "Refused classification" sites, many of which are unrelated to sexual abuse. Subjects such as abortion, anorexia, aborigines and legislation on the sale of marijuana would all risk being filtered, as would media reports on these subjects.^[124]

The Howard Government commissioned a number of independent technical experts to examine Internet filtering. The resulting report was delivered to the Australian Government in February 2008, and released publicly in December 2008. Professor Bjorn Landfeldt, one of the report's authors, stated that filtering technology simply does not work, as it can easily be bypassed and slows access to the Internet by up to 87%. In response, Stephen Conroy has stated that the report involved no empirical testing, and was simply a literature review of material available from other sources; any problems raised by the report would be tested during the filter trials scheduled for mid-January 2009.^[125][126]

A report by Tim Stevens and Dr Peter Neumann for the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) analyses each of the available ISP-based filtering solutions and concludes that they are ineffective in the fight against terror. A hybrid filtering scheme was rated the best, but it is ineffective against dynamic content such as chat pages and instant messaging, and had political implications because it required the existence of a blacklist of blocked pages. The report instead advocates the use of take-down notices for extremist content, and prosecutions to "signal that individuals engaged in online extremism are not beyond the law."^[127]

The Metaverse Journal suggests that because web filtering logs every site visit, and some information about who is visiting the site, then it is ripe for abuse by whoever runs the filters. It potentially allows surveillance of any user of the Internet, such as journalists, political opponents, or even the family members of politicians.^[128]

Ross Fitzgerald of The Australian believes that the filter was not introduced in 2010 to defuse it as an election issue, and that if it is re-introduced into the next parliament it could be even more censorious than the current proposal.^[122]

Australian radio presenter and writer Helen Razer dislikes the filter because she enjoys pornography, does not believe it causes harm to adults, and doesn't think that children are at much risk:^[129]

"I enjoy pornography. Perhaps not quite so much as I enjoy living among citizens who take an entitlement to free speech for granted. But I do like it quite a lot. And it seems that my porn is endangered. If Conroy's clean feed works, which some tech sceptics argue that it cannot, it will prevent access to all pornography ... I can report that one doesn't simply amble into X-rated or even R18+ material ... I have become adept at this; children, presumably, have not. And if they have, clearly they are the issue of the world's most reprehensible parents and should be sent to live with Hetty Johnston forthwith ... Despite the best efforts of some, there is no evidence that pornography will negatively affect me or other consenting adults ... The only lasting effect of my access to porn is a reflex giggle when the pizza delivery man knocks on my door."

Attacks on Government Websites

On 26 March 2009 the Australian Government Classification website, http://www.classification.gov.au/, was attacked by the Internet group Anonymous, automatically redirecting them to a page on the same site with a message mocking censorship efforts with the text:^[130]

This site contains information about the boards that have the right to CONTROL YOUR FREEDOMZ. The Classification Board has the right to not just classify content (the name is an ELABORATE TRICK), but also the right to DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISNT APPROPRIATE and BAN CONTENT FROM THE PUBLIC. We are part of an ELABORATE DECEPTION from CHINA to CONTROL AND SHEEPIFY the NATION, to PROTECT THE CHILDREN. All opposers must HATE CHILDREN, and therefore must be KILLED WITH A LARGE MELONS during the PROSECUTION PARTIES IN SEPTEMBER. Come join our ALIEN SPACE PARTY.

In September 2009 the group Anonymous reawakened, in Operation Didgeridie, in order to protest the policy of Internet censorship, and on 9 September initiated a Distributed Denial of Service attack against the prime minister's website. As a result of this attack, the site was taken offline for approximately one hour.^[131]

On 10 February 2010, the Australian Parliament of Australia's website, www.aph.gov.au, was attacked by Anonymous once again. The attacks included distributed denial of service, blackfaxes, prank calls and spam emails. The attacks commenced at 12 midnight local time and the website has been down for over 2 days.^[132] The attack, named "Operation Titstorm" ^[133] is reportedly in defiance of the Government's banning of small-breasted women & female ejaculation in pornography. The group called for physical media to be distributed to members of the Australian Labor Party as well as assaulting email addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers with spam and pornographic images that were in the categories to which were going to be filtered by the government's policy.

Arguments for Internet censorship

• It will limit access to some adult content by the general population.
• Internet users will be able to use a complaint system which will allow them to report offensive websites that can be blocked.
• Websites that teach crime and terrorism will be blocked.

Arguments against Internet censorship

• The web filter will not just block child pornography; it will also block any "RC rated material" which will include blocking access to web pages of banned films, books, hardcore pornography (and video games that do not meet the MA 15+ standard).
• Material that is illegal to view (e.g. instructions on criminal activity, depictions of child abuse) is a much narrower subset of material that may be classified RC and filtered.
• The organisation responsible for classifying media in Australia will not be involved in any way in the filtering process- so the filtered material will typically not technically be RC.
• The web filter will block content that meets the requirements for an MA 15+ rating if the Government disapproves of the access control software on the website offering the content.
• The web filter will not be able to block peer to peer networks and file sharing programs which are usable for distributing child pornography and allow users to download large amounts of it in a short period of time.
• The web filter will also block access to websites about politically sensitive issues which have changing criminality statuses e.g. euthanasia and abortion.
• The web filter may slow down access to the internet; this will contradict the Australian Government's plan to provide faster broadband access speeds.
• The proposed filter may damage Australia – United States relations as the United States government is against Australia's filter plan.
• The web filter may be deemed "unconstitutional" under the Australian constitution and may not pass parliament.
• The web filter can easily be bypassed by a proxy server.
• The web filter's implementation, deployment and maintenance costs would be footed by the tax-payer.
• Paedophiles and terrorists use sophisticated techniques to conceal their content from the general public, thus limiting the need to protect people from this largely invisible information.
• The most common form of child abuse and including child sexual abuse material can be found on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter published by the children it involves, e.g. cyberbullying.
• The Australian Federal Police will not allow ACMA to filter child abuse material if doing so will tip off criminals to the discovery of their crime.
• After the Australian Federal Police (potentially involving Interpol and the domestic police of the host country) complete a criminal investigation of child abuse material, the filter will only be effective if the police then choose to allow the server hosting the material to remain operational.
• It would be more effective to spend the money on cross-border capabilities to shut down hosts of child abuse material at their source.

Terminology

The proposed filter has been referred to in the media variously as an Internet filter and a web filter. The world-wide-web is a myriad of software documents containing pointers to each other, hosted on server computers around the world. The Internet is the physical network used to convey requests from users' computers to these servers and responses from the servers back to the users.

The proposed filter only monitors certain ports specific to conveying web traffic. As it aims to monitor the majority of web traffic, it is appropriately referred to as a web filter. As it is agnostic of the majority (99.99%) of other connections a user's computer might establish with other computers on the Internet, it is something of a misnomer to refer to it as an Internet filter.

Since the proposed filter is situated at the Internet service provider (the junction between users and the Internet at large), introducing such a filter cannot possibly slow down the Internet itself. It can only (potentially) slow down access to the Internet by users of that ISP. Ignoring load considerations, communication speed across the Internet for any non-web traffic would be unaffected.

Topics targeted for censorship

Political Parties

The website of the Australian Sex Party is banned from within several state and federal government departments, including Stephen Conroy's ACMA. Convenor of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten, has described this ban as "unconstitutional".^[134]

Euthanasia

On 22 May 2009 it was disclosed in the press, citing wikileaks.org, that the Australian Government had added Dr Philip Nitschke's online Peaceful Pill Handbook, which deals with the topic of voluntary euthanasia, to the blacklist maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority used to filter web access to citizens of Australia.^[135] Euthanasia groups will hold seminars around Australia teaching how to evade the proposed filter using proxy servers and virtual networks. A spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said that euthanasia would not be targeted by the proposed web filter,^[136] however Stephen Conroy has previously stated that "while euthanasia remains illegal it will be captured by the RC filter".^[137]

Video games

See also: Australian Classification Board#Classification of Video Games

In June 2009, it was confirmed that the Government's proposed Internet censorship regime would block downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard, such as eBay and Amazon.^[138]

Racism

In January 2010, the Encyclopedia Dramatica article "Aboriginal" was removed from the search engine results of Google Australia, following a complaint that its content was racist.^{[139] [140]} George Newhouse, the lawyer for the complainant, claims the site is "illegal" and should be blocked by the mandatory web filter. ^[141] As the address of the site appeared on the leaked ACMA blacklist, it is likely that the whole site would be blocked by the filter.^[142] A search on terms related to the article will produce a message that one of the results has been removed after a legal request relating to Australia's Racial Discrimination Act 1975.^{[143] [144]}

See also

Australia portal

• Censorship in Australia
• Internet censorship
• Content-control software
• For The Children (politics)

References

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5. ^ Coalition rejects internet filter (The Age)
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7. ^ ^{a b c} Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day (SMH)
8. ^ Leaked Australian blacklist reveals banned sites
9. ^ Suicide debate law a blow to free speech (The Age)
10. ^ Peaceful Pill Handbook - The Law
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25. ^ auDA take down stephenconroy.com.au | Stop Internet Censorship
26. ^ EFA: FOI Request on ABA
27. ^ EFA: Amendments to FOI Act: Communications Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002
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29. ^ Tear down Australia's Great Firewall Reef (spiked)
30. ^ ^{a b c} Porn Wars, Episode 2 (zdnet Australia)
31. ^ Report prepared by CSIRO for NetAlert. Original report available at http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/cf/staff/peter.rickwood/files/filtereffectiveness.pdf
32. ^ ^{a b c d} Web censorship plan heads towards a dead end (SMH)
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36. ^ ^{a b c} Proposed Filter Criticized in Australia (New York Times)
37. ^ Conroy requests faith in net filter scheme (iTnews)
38. ^ Labor's Plan For Cyber Safety
39. ^ Minister welcomes advances in internet filtering technology
40. ^ Internet Service Provider (ISP) Filtering (accessed 1 April 2010)
41. ^ Tough filter campaign ahead (ZDnet)
42. ^ Lundy calls for net filter opt-out (Canberra Times)
43. ^ Filter goes ahead regardless (smh)
44. ^ What we really think (iiNet)
45. ^ Moses, Asher (9 July 2010). "Conroy backs down on net filters". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/conroy-backs-down-on-net-filters-20100709-10381.html?autostart=1. Retrieved 10 July 2010. 
46. ^ "Telstra, Optus to start censoring the web next month", Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, News Limited newspapers, 22 June 2011
47. ^ Opposition says Government is botching internet filter trial (ABC)
48. ^ ^{a b} Hockey slams "unworkable" Internet filter (itWire)
49. ^ Coalition to dump 'flawed' internet filter
50. ^ ^{a b c d} Labor Party's "deafening silence" as filter trial delayed (The Age)
51. ^ Asher Moses (27 August 2008). "Net filters may block porn and gambling sites". theage.com.au (Melbourne: Fairfax Digital). http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/10/27/1224955916155.html. Retrieved 31 March 2008. 
52. ^ Net filters may block porn and gambling sites (SMH)
53. ^ http://media.mytalk.com.au/3AW/AUDIO/291008_Internet_Filter.wma
54. ^ Sex industry is launching a new political party
55. ^ No opt-out of filtered Internet Darren Pauli, Computerworld Australia, October 2008. Reprinted by The Industry Standard
56. ^ ACMA - Content service provider responsibilities
57. ^ ACMA takes aim at Whirlpool, supplier (AustralianIT)
58. ^ Australia secretly censors Wikileaks press release and Danish Internet censorship list, 16 March 2009
59. ^ Net censorship already having a chilling effect (EFA)
60. ^ Purported ACMA list on Wikileaks
61. ^ ^{a b} Earley, David (20 March 2009). "Rudd's internet blacklist includes dentist, kennel, tuckshop". The Courier-Mail. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25214413-3102,00.html. 
62. ^ ^{a b c} ACMA - ACMA media release 34/2009 – 19 March
63. ^ Australian government secret ACMA internet censorship blacklist, 18 Mar 2009
64. ^ Stephen Conroy says leaked list of banned websites 'seems like ACMA's blacklist' (news)
65. ^ ^{a b} Transcript and video of Senator Conroy on 'Q&A', 26 March 2009
66. ^ 'Technical error' behind Henson website black-listing - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
67. ^ "'Caching error' caused Henson blacklisting". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 March 2009. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/27/1237657133829.html. 
68. ^ ^{a b c} Closed Environment Testing of ISP-Level Internet Content FilteringPDF
69. ^ Minister welcomes advances in internet filtering technology
70. ^ ^{a b} EFA says Filtering Trial a Failure
71. ^ ^{a b} Opposition rises to internet filter
72. ^ Internet Filter to block 10,000 "unwanted" websites (Courier-Mail)
73. ^ iTWire - Australian Government calls for live Internet filter trial
74. ^ Internet Service Provider Filtering Pilot - Request for Expression of Interest
75. ^ Oz net censorship apparatus to target BitTorrent (The Register)
76. ^ Conroy admits blacklist error, blames 'Russian mob' (SMH)
77. ^ List of banned websites in Thailand and Denmark leaked online
78. ^ Pilot to assess technical feasibility of ISP filtering (DBCDE)
79. ^ Optus and iiNet snubbed in web filter trials (news)
80. ^ iPrimus to start filtering in April (zdnet)
81. ^ iiNet quits Conroy's filter trial (ZDNet)
82. ^ ISPs give clean feed filter a technical green light (ARN)
83. ^ Statistics experts label ISP filtering trials unscientific
84. ^ Conroy Reveals Plans to Censor the Internet
85. ^ Conroy's clean feed won't block porn (New Matilda)
86. ^ NetClean CEO blog: Australia to block child abuse webpages
87. ^ NetClean sales presentation
88. ^ Christophe Espern. Principle, interests, limitations and risks of hybrid filtering in order to block resources on child pornography
89. ^ http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/07/how-the-great-firewa.html Cory Doctorow. How the Great Firewall of Britain works
90. ^ "British ISPs restrict access to Wikipedia amid child pornography allegations", Wikinews, 7 December 2008
91. ^ WP:IWF#Technical Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/2008 IWF action, technical issues
92. ^ IWF pulls Wikipedia from child porn blacklist (The Register)
93. ^ Internet Regulation Survey
94. ^ 80pc back web filter: poll (ABC News)
95. ^ 92% of Whirlpool users against filter (APC magazine)
96. ^ Study casts doubt over net filter support (Sydney Morning Herald)
97. ^ ^{a b c} Cash floods in for anti-censorship protests
98. ^ In pictures: hundreds protest government net censorship in [APC (magazine)|APC Magazine]
99. ^ "GetUp! organises advertising blitz to protest internet filter". news.com.au. 4 December 2008. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,24750766-2,00.html. ^{[dead link]}
100. ^ "Rally Locations for December 13th // NOCENSORSHIP.INFO // NO INTERNET FILTER". The Digital Liberty Coalition. 3 December 2008. http://nocensorship.info/main/?p=366. 
101. ^ 31st
102. ^ Good Clean Internet Censorship
103. ^ YouTube - GetUp! - Censor This? Censordyne - Internet Censorship
104. ^ Censordyne - Good, clean internet censorship
105. ^ http://search.censordyne.com.au
106. ^ Qantas refused to screen Censordny anti-censorship ad
107. ^ . http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25777414-15306,00.html. ^{[dead link]}
108. ^ Electronic Frontiers Australia member Geordie Guy receives death threat over web filter plan (news.com)
109. ^ Clinton speech boosts anti-filter campaign (ABC)
110. ^ Stephen Conroy and US at odds on net filter (The Australian)
111. ^ ISP-level content filtering won't work
112. ^ Net Censorship Plan Backlash (SMH)
113. ^ Can Labor implement 'clean feed' without legislation?
114. ^ Our views on mandatory Internet filtering (Google)
115. ^ ISP filter may put Google TV on backburner (news.com.au)
116. ^ Filtering out the fury: how government tried to gag web censor critics - Sydney Morning Herald, 24 October 2008
117. ^ NCYLC
118. ^ Net filtering a $33m waste: child groups | The Australian
119. ^ Children's welfare groups slam net filters
120. ^ New hurdle for net censorship (SMH)
121. ^ Liberal tyranny on the World Wide Web (spiked)
122. ^ ^{a b} Internet censorship remains part of Conroy's agenda (The Australian)
123. ^ Internet filtering: first step on the path to Burma? (Crikey)
124. ^ Open letter to Australia’s Prime Minister (Reporters without Borders)
125. ^ Fatal Flaws in Web Censorship Plan, says report
126. ^ Government rejects negative internet filter report
127. ^ Internet filtering ineffective in the fight against terror (itNews Australia)
128. ^ Proposed ISP filtering allows surveillance of journalists, citizens, politicians (Metaverse journal)
129. ^ Hey, Senator - leave us discerning viewers of pornography alone (SMH)
130. ^ Robinson, Justin (26 March 2009). "Breaking news: Australian government website hacked". atomic (Haymarket Media). http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/140964,breaking-news-australian-government-website-hacked.aspx. Retrieved 26 March 2009. 
131. ^ "Rudd website attacked in filter protest". ABC. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/10/2681642.htm. Retrieved 13 February 2010. 
132. ^ "Australia cyber attacks could last 'months': hackers". Fairfax Media. 11 February 2010. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/australia-cyber-attacks-could-last-months-hackers-20100211-nuzc.html. Retrieved 11 February 2010. 
133. ^ Operation Titstorm: hackers bring down government websites (Sydney Morning Herald)
134. ^ Aussie net censorship turning Chinese (The Register)
135. ^ Duffy, Michael (22 May 2009). "Web filtering pulls plug on euthanasia debate". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/web-filtering-pulls-plug-on-euthanasia-debate-20090521-bh0s.html. Retrieved 22 May 2009. 
136. ^ Euthanasia workshops 'to fight filter' (smh)
137. ^ http://libertus.net/censor/isp-blocking/rc-ncb-govclaims2010.html
138. ^ Web filters to censor video games (SMH)
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140. ^ Stephen Hodder-Watt –v- Google Australia Pty Limited, Indigenous Community News Network, http://icnn.com.au/breaking-news/stephen-hodder-watt-–v-google-australia-pty-limited/, retrieved 15 January 2010 
141. ^ Cyber racism, Radio National, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2792873.htm, retrieved 15 January 2010 
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143. ^ Riley, Duncan, Aus Media Gets Encyclopedia Dramatica Story Wrong, Only Some Search Links Removed, The Inquisitr, http://www.inquisitr.com/57105/aus-media-gets-ed-story-wrong/, retrieved 15 January 2010 
144. ^ Australian Anti Discrimination Act Complaint, Chilling Effects, http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=17460, retrieved 15 January 2010 

External links

• Australian Internet Industry Association
• Comments on Mandatory Filtering and Blocking by ISPs
• Electronic Frontiers Australia
• ISP Filtering Live Pilot - Questions and answers
• Labor’s Mandatory ISP Internet Blocking Plan
• Somebody Think Of The Children a blog documenting censorship and moral panic in Australia
• Virtual Nation. The History of the Internet In Australia.
• Filtering in Oz: Australia's Foray into Internet Censorship by Derek E. Bambauer, Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 125
• Content filtering trial results as reported by Australian ISP, Exetel, in April 2009
• ACMA Research and Developments reports The ACMA reports on internet filtering technology of which the final report shall be submitted in 2009
• DBCDE report on results of filtering trial released in December 2009
• Australian Broadband Survey 2009 (Whirlpool)