You may have already heard but in case you haven’t, the Australian government has decided to implement a filtering system to censor our internet, so now we can feel as though we’re in China, when really we’re just sitting at the computer in the comfort of our own home. The government’s aim is to protect us – the people – from stuff like extremely violent hardcore porn, terrorist chatrooms, pr-eating disorder forums, and, ahh, online poker.

The Sydney Morning Herald says it isn’t even clear how, or if, the planned internet filter will distinguish between illegal and legal material acceptable to view. An old blacklist, created by the Australian communications regulators, was leaked earlier last year and contained many sites that were not related to offensive or unacceptable web pages. There were online poker sites, YouTube links, Wikipedia entries, and of course a litany of Satanic and fetish approved sites. Regardless of all the issues being argued, our country bases its government on democracy. But one has to also keep in mind there is a common misconception that Australia has a right to freedom of speech, which is what the internet can sometimes be viewed as. A representation of freedom of speech.

According to the RacismNoWay website; “The Australian Constitution does not make special reference to freedom of speech. The Commonwealth Parliament may restrict or censor speech through censorship legislation or other laws, as long as they are otherwise within constitutional power… There are however some provisions relating to personal rights such as the right to trial by jury (section 80), and the right to freedom of religion (section 116).”

To ban pro-ana (pro-anorexia) websites won’t stop people from developing the condition. To ban pro-euthanasia pages won’t make a horribly injured, incapacitated or terminally ill person want to live a bit longer. To ban Satan worship websites won’t turn followers of LaVey away from rambunctious orgy nights in Hotel California watching goat fearing propaganda in their pentagram pyjamas. And so on, and so forth…

A Google statement recently revealed that Chinese hackers – presumably siding with their censor-happy government – tried to corrupt their security measures and also the security of other organisations in order to attain details of Chinese human rights activitists who were using Gmail. The statement from their blog reads:

“In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident – albeit a significant one – was something quite different.”

“First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses – including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors – have been similarly targeted… Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.”

What’s to say that someone trying to spread anti-censorship information, once the filter is implemented, will find themselves in for similar treatment? To take action or voice your opposition to the greenlighted internet filtering plan you can sign the petition being run by No Clean Feed. It may work, it may not, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.