Australian Government Backdoor Internet Filter Shuts Down 1,000 Websites 90
An anonymous reader writes "The Australian government has secretly censored over 1,000 web sites through a hitherto-unused internet censorship law. In April the Melbourne Free University was blocked without any explanation. Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act allows the government to close web sites without warning to "uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security". This is open to abuse as Australians only have limited free speech rights which already make it difficult for the press to report corruption."
If a government makes it hard to report corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
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"uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security" are vague enough that many things can be engulfed based on the government's point of view of any particular website on any particular day. I wish they put this much effort into "uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security" when it came to politicians telling the truth, consumer protection and shite advertising.
Re:If a government makes it hard to report corrupt (Score:5, Interesting)
What do you expect from a country that originally had a white population from only two different groups: Criminals, and jailers?
Reminds me of a quip from an Aussie acquaintance a few years ago: He said he was happy that Australia got the criminals and America got the religious groups.
Of course, that's not really relevant to this issue. Politicians anywhere should be assumed corrupt and on the take unless they can prove otherwise. And laws limiting the population's access to information about their government's inner workings are de-facto proof of the "otherwise".
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Reminds me of a quip from an Aussie acquaintance a few years ago: He said he was happy that Australia got the criminals and America got the religious groups.
Reminds me of a quip from one of my Canadian friends, who said the US got all the Blacks and Canada got all the Francophones because the US had first choice.
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Having lived in both countries, I'll take the crims any day. Much safer with them there, and the religious whackjobs on the far side of the Pacific.
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I love Australia, but I confess that I am not especially fond of the back-stab-fest that is Aussie politics, which seems mostly designed to chew up the decent and/or sane politicos and spit them out.
As for Julia, I guess she should be glad someone actually wants to fuck her in the normal way, rather than with the sharpened stake she herself favours using on others. And I find it hilarious that she of all people should start carrying on about the raw deal that Simon Crean got when she pulled a similar trick
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What do you expect from a country that originally had a white population from only two different groups: Criminals, and jailers?
This is a troll right? What a ridiculous statement to make! Waves of free immigrants from UK + Europe after the initial convict settlement dwarfs those convict numbers. Only a minority of 'white' australians today can trace their ancestory back to criminals and 'jailers', as you put it.
Re:If a government makes it hard to report corrupt (Score:4, Insightful)
You pretty much contradicted yourself. If it was blocked in error then SOMEBODY must have some blocking in place, No?
Australian Securities and Investments Commission was behind the blocking of the Melbourne Free University website
Further, this was already admitted by the Australian government:
The news came tonight in a statement issued by the office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, following a controversial event in April which saw some 1,200 websites wrongfully blocked by several of Australia’s major Internet service providers.
Over the past week, a number of different Federal Government involved in Internet regulation, including the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Communications and Media Authority have denied involvement in the April block. However, tonight Senator Conroy’s office revealed that the incident that resulted in Melbourne Free University and more than a thousand other sites being blocked originated from a different source — financial regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
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They have done it before. This guy did a web site making fun of the prime minister and the AFP called up his web host and got it shut down. No good reason to do it. They just didn't like what he said. The AFP are a political goon squad. http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/government-shuts-howard-spoof-site/2006/03/17/1142098638843.html http://www.countercurrents.org/aus-phillips240306.htm
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The AFP are a political goon squad.
Yet they will refuse to fingerprint you without a documented good reason.
(Yes, I know this from personal experience. If you're curious: It was in connection with obtaining a criminal records check back in the US, for a job I had in Oz.)
Australian corruption? (Score:2)
Given their origin I'm not surprised...
Jokes aside, I would have expected news like this come from a country with a culture originating in China or the Mediterranean.
Countries with borders facing the North Sea tend to have lower rates of corruption; with France as the pathetic exception.
And the 1000 sites are? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also (Score:2)
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ASIC http://www.asic.gov.au/ requested all major ISP's block the IP of a server because one of the Domains hosted on it included a financial scam.
I don't think http://melbournefreeuniversity.org/ is still on the same host because 103.15.178.29 is only hosting
making-the-invisible-visible.com
melbournefreeuniversity.org
mtiv.org
www.vantagefreight.com.au
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Most likely it was 1000 sites containing images of adult women with small breasts, which as all good citizens know is intolerable in a decent society.
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It is here: http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Crimes-against-children/Access-blocking [interpol.int]
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Let me get this right ... (Score:2)
Maybe there's hope for you in this world AC, but you'd better work on life instead of just letting it happen or you are screwed.
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Added to this technically speaking, when it comes to free speech rights they are unlimited under the constitution, as there is no law limiting the extent of those rights as such any perceived infringement of those rights can be publicly challenged in the Australian High Court. The same goes for all other citizens rights.
The only way to make it more democratic would be to increase the number of laws that require a public referendum prior to their being changed, as is required for any changes to the consti
Too bad (Score:1, Troll)
Or else they are off chasing some blonde from Home & Away. Anyway censorship and freedom of speech are fairly low on the agenda
Re:Too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
But don't forget the median household income is $43,960 and they have 5.6% unemployment. Free healthcare and education. So don't get too crazy about free speech and all. They can go at least another 20 years before they have sold the whole country to China.
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"In the United States, free speech is given primacy among rights, and therefore the potential harm caused by restrictions on speech is thought to outweigh the potential harm caused by speech that is not restricted. In Australia free speech does not necessarily have the same primacy. "
A respected Australian retired judge would seem to endorse that view. And he not only applauds the greater restrictions on their speech that Australians "enjoy", he thinks that we don't enjoy enough of them.
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That's a lie, that right there.
not lies at all (Score:2)
Healthcare is free if your taxable income is low enough (otherwise you pay the Medicare Levy each tax year unless you have bought Health Insurance).
Education is free for everyone up until University (but you can choose to pay to send your kids to private school).
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My daughter got to survive her very difficult birth thanks to free Australian medical care.
Which would have bankrupted her mum and me had we stayed in the States to get married and settle, as we were penniless at the time, even assuming that we'd been able to get the care they needed in the US, without being able to prove we could pay for it first.
Just thought you might like to know.
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Some things used to be free. Education for one. But somebody had to pull the ladder up after him...
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Australian education is freeish up to and including High School. Uni you have to pay for, later, at a much reduced rate to US university education, and it should still be avoided by a lot of people; we don't need most of the arts graduates.
Medical is freeish other the the medicare levy on those that can pay. It's still insurance, but at least 1.5% is better than the kind of cost US insurance is.
As for the free speech, yeah, nothing on Crikey's list gives me great concern. There's no Deep Throat and Woodward
Re: Too bad (Score:4, Informative)
Whilst funny, Fosters is not popular in Australia and is rarely seen
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Oh it's worse than that. I live 20min drive from the Fosters brewery and yet I've never figured out where I would be able to buy the stuff. I've not seen it on sale anywhere.
Re: Too bad (Score:2)
There's a reason we export it all.
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The locals are too busy sitting on the tailgate of their ute (bought on credit) drinking cans of VB and acting bogan do anything about it.
Or else they are off chasing some blonde from Home & Away. Anyway censorship and freedom of speech are unreported in the Fox-controlled media
FTFY
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Nobody actually drinks fosters ... but the rest is kinda accurate.
Most are worried about the recent budget and the up coming election in September to even notice this.
At least we have a decent electoral system.
Re:Too bad (Score:4, Funny)
Nobody actually drinks fosters ..
Yeah, they drink VB, which actually manages to be worse.
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...and for those of us who actually care about what we drink, there's Toohey's. :)
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...and for those of us who actually care about what we drink, there's Toohey's. :)
Which is perfectly adequate for brushing your teeth provided you don't swallow any of it :)
...have I just accidentally restarted the beer war?
Re:Too bad (Score:4, Funny)
just goes to show you know nothing but Aussies:
- they don't drink fosters (that's for yank tourists)
- they have 'utes' - not pickup trucks
- they're macho because they don't assume that everything said to them is a veiled insult
- and the women chase the men - usually with sticks and knives.
But thanks for illustrating the difference between us and you ;)
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Change "Pickup truck" to "Ute" and "tins of Fosters" to "tinnies of VB" and you're spot on.
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Anyway censorship and freedom of speech are fairly low on the agenda
Say rather not on any agenda anywhere in the country and you're closer to the truth. The hon(!) R. Finkelstein, a respected Australian jurist, has this to say about freedom of speech
"United States, free speech is given primacy among rights, and therefore the potential harm caused by restrictions on speech is thought to outweigh the potential harm caused by speech that is not restricted. In Australia free speech does not necessarily have the same primacy"
more on the hon(!) R. Finkelsteins' views of free speech here [nla.gov.au]
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Dunno how that happened, but that was me.
Also, it's "ute", not "pickup truck".
but...but (Score:5, Funny)
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They will just block your IP. You need a massive network of different IP addresses to keep it going.
Seems it Time for... (Score:1)
Anonymous to shut down the government web sites.
Hmmm, so obvious ....
Australians only have limited free speech rights . (Score:4, Insightful)
Australian Reserve Bank Corruption (Score:1)
In other countries it is common to see tearful government officials handcuffed and walked in front of tv cameras. You never see that in Australia. The fed police are corrupt and anyone who reports corruption gets sacked. Look what they did to this reserve bank whistleblower right in front of RBA chief glen stevens:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/whistleblower-told-to-shut-up-20120913-25v8t.html
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/battellino-denies-warning-whistleblower-20121008-27850.html
http://www.s
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In other countries it is common to see tearful government officials handcuffed and walked in front of tv cameras.
Sure, US justice is truly independent from executive power, and generally speaking, US separation of powers is quite good. But it does not address the lack of democracy, and the fact that citizen votes will have zero effect on many policies (because of a bipartisan system where both parties agree on many things, and because of the power of lobbying).
Perp walks gives you the illusion that the thing is under control, but the handcuffed government officials will be replaced by another one that will do exactly
Long story short: scam websites (Score:2)
The 1000+ websites mentioned in the post are (supposedly) part of a "cold-calling investment scam using the name ‘Global Capital Wealth’". The Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the federal corporate regulator, has ordered that their IP addresses be blocked, which also catches innocent websites co-hosted at those IP addresses.
The Australian Federal Police also asks ISPs to block websites listed by Interpol as containing “'worst of the worst' child pornography", apparently
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but only at DNS level and only in smaller numbers. Blocking extreme child porn sites via DNS would be next to useless, so I hope they also block at IP level.
Of course. For the children, we must go to extra lengths!