Last night on the 7.30 Report communications minister Stephen Conroy slammed Google for its hypocritical stance on the government’s proposed internet filter:
“We as a sovereign government are not going to allow large multinational corporations or foreign governments to determine what should be in our refused classification category. Google signed a contract with China to do censorship. They signed a contract to do that. In Thailand, Google have agreed to filter any criticism of the Thai royal family. What’s that about? So, Google want to talk about legitimising censorship in other countries; they should have a look in the mirror.”
But the minister has a little China problem of his own. This morning, Business Spectator reports wire service AAP was the victim of a cyber attack emanating from China. The story concluded with a message we thought worth ccing you all in on:
“The internet is essential Australian infrastructure, as we have seen from the amount of money and resources the Australian government is willing to put into a national broadband network. But rather than focus his attention on limiting his citizens’ access to information through a censorship program, Senator Stephen Conroy would be better off securing this essential infrastructure from attack. Even if that attack is coming from one of its biggest trading partners.”
The key phrase used by Conroy is We as a sovereign government you see they have different rules from companies and individuals so it doesn’t count.
I didn’t enjoy Conroy’s comments around the filter. There’s 2 issues here and he only ever addresses one of them;
1. Child porn is bad
2. Is this the most effective method to fix 1?
Conroy just keeps running the ‘what, do you want kiddie porn?’ line without addresssing the second part. This is likely to be an ineffectual and expensive solution. I want to be convinced this is the most effective way to spend Commonwealth funds to fix #1 and Conroy is not doing it.
Conroy is buffoon but a bit like Freddie from Friday the 13th, he keeps popping up to scare you. Conroy like most religious nuts want to control your life, and kiddie porn is just the excuse for internet censorship. I do not want our country to join China North Korea Burma Malaysia and Iran secretlydeciding what their countrymen are allowed to see.
The US Ambassador’s criticism of Australia’s attempts at Internet censorship must be causing Conroy and Rudd some heartburn. Chest beating about us being a sovereign nation is some indication of the pressure he is feeling.
It is interesting to find what is substantially an independent opinion on Rudd and Conroy’s stupidity in relation to Internet censorship. America takes information freedom seriously, and it would not have taken this stand in relation to Australia without careful consideration.
Anybody with a basic understanding of encryption and Virtual Private Networks knows that pornography will be distributed notwithstanding internet censorship.
We all now that notwithstanding admonitions to the contrary that pederasts within the Catholic Church have managed to flourish for decades despite official sanction. Conroy should be setting in place techniques to root out (pardon the pun) the miscreants involved in this vile trade and leave the rest of us alone.
The argument for a filter is always bound to move towards hypocrisy because the filter itself is totally hypocritical
Someone, anyone, in the media please ask Stephen Conroy what he thinks of China filtering content for its political means… I’m sure his answer will leave plenty of scope for him to be called out for the hypocrit he is
What I find galling about Conroy is his kiddie porn mantra as if thats the sole consideration. I find the concept of a refused classification as the basis for a filter dishonest and disturbing. Anyone can nominate a site to be put into the classification yet nobody can publicly access it. That just reeks of wowserism and certainly provides no confidence in its implementation or practice. To make a comment on Thailand and Google shows he either isn,t aware of the law on the royal family in Thailand or he is saying Google should violate those laws of that sovereign nation. On that basis is he inviting Google and ISPs to violate his filter if and when it may become law ? There is just too much wrong with the filter and its supposed effectiveness for it to be of value to anybody. Chase up the crims and sexual predators by the usual means and leave filters as parental options but dont pretend its all about kiddie porn.