South Australian internet censorship
South Australians will face online commenting restrictions when writs are issued for the March 20 State Election.
The Advertiser revealed today that a new law came into force on January 6, requiring internet bloggers, and anyone making a comment on next month’s state election, to publish their real name and postcode when commenting on the poll.
No such rules apply to commenting on federal elections.
The Right to Know Coalition, made up of major media outlets, has described the new laws as “draconian”. (more…)
Tear down the great firewall
I’m supporting the online campaign to “Tear down the great firewall“.
I oppose Australian Government plans to compulsorily filter the web.
GetUp! has gathered more than 120,000 petition signatures so far in opposition to mandatory internet censorship.
There are plenty of alternatives, like distributing software to parents to use at home, or making the filter opt-in rather than mandatory.
And of course, prosecute people who download and use inappropriate material such as child pornography and bomb manufacture.
But don’t enshrine the nanny state and take away our freedom to choose.
Regulate Facebook and ban hate sites
A cadet reporter came across a new Facebook group this week that was dedicated to denigrating a local teenager, let’s call him Joe.
Categorised under “Organizations – clubs and societies”, the group was called “People who think Joe is annoying”. There was a photo of Joe wearing his cricket club cap, with a red line drawn through his head.
The description read: “This group is for people who all agree Joe is an annoying tool.”
Some of the early members published mildly insulting posts, nothing in isolation that would trigger a defamation action in the real world, but collectively … a recipe for depression or worse if they continued to aggregate. (more…)
Government plans to censor the web
For some bizarre unknown reason the Australian Government is moving unilaterally to join China in censoring the internet.
I’m not making this up and it’s not April Fool’s Day.
The Courier Mail reports that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hatched a $44.2 million plan to control what we read online.
Internet censorship will involve two tiers – one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a “clean feed”, censoring adult material. (more…)
