"Filter confers legitimacy on broader censorship: Google" - ITWire
"This difference is, of course, that the decision as to what is be viewed and what is not is moved from a choice made by an individual to a compulsion imposed by a government agency, without transparency to the individual that a decision is being made," the submission said."Use of compulsion rightly calls for special vigilance to ensure that denial of choice is fully justified. Special safeguards are appropriate and necessary where there is also no transparency to the user as to the decision that has been made."
"Google, like many other internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material, which is illegal in almost every country, and we filter out this content from our search results and remove it from our products,"
"But moving to a mandatory ISP level filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information."
It is vital that, not only Australian, but any internet user be aware of this information and all that relates to the current Federal Australian Government, and in particular Senator Conroy's plans, for the introduction of mandatory internet filtering for this country.
Any well versed internet user knows exactly what this means, and that no matter what system is put in place, it will not resolve the "problem".
Don't let it happen in Australia! Don't let it happen anywhere! Make them, force them, to deal with the real issues at hand and put in resources to ensure the safety of children etc. This notion is ludicrous, wasteful, laughable and deserves to be highlight exactly as that!
Currently we see a very public targeting of Google and YouTube, aligned with actions in China and Thailand (among others). Is this current Government also expending vast amounts of public resources targeting other services and companies (Microsoft? Yahoo? Facebook? Twitter? etc etc). If there exists a level of self-regulation on issues such as 'child pornography' as there appears to be to a degree, the issues raised by this current Government become even more watery and illegitimate.
Don't be fooled parents! Don't think that this will protect anyone! And don't be fooled that it won't slow networks, become political (think about it, all information about Abortion or Euthanasia will most likely be blocked...not just some, ALL!), and since our Government sites Thailand and China as case examples, its a dangerous path on which they walk.
Don't let it happen! Post your thoughts.
Sylvestor
