Below is my letter to Senator Stephen Conroy, Australia’s communication minister, who has recently announced that they will be moving ahead with censoring Australia’s access to the Internet.
I urge you to send him a message.
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Hi Senator Stephen Conroy,
You have made me appalled to be an Australian citizen.
By censoring our Internet you are crushing our voice, and freedom, something that we pay taxes to keep.
Fact #1 : The Internet filter is only for legal content which has been refused classification by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Fact #2 : Illegal content gets investigated by the police, and not ACMA.
Fact #3 : Child Pornography is illegal, and is investigated by the police who attempt to aprehend th perpetrators. The filter won’t even block the main thing they are saying it is being used for.
Fact #4 : Once the list is created, it will be edited and manipulated by politicians, the ACMA, religious groups, and anyone else with enough lobbying power.
Fact #5 : The filter WILL slow the internet down.
Fact #6 : Not even Google, or Universities believe the filter is a good idea.
Fact #7 : Being homosexual was a crime in Tasmania until 1997. Thus sites relating to homosexuality would have been blocked.
Fact #8 : By filtering the Internet you are reducing civil liberties.
Fact #9 : Communist China have an Internet filter that they use to brainwash their citizens, most of whom don’t even know the concept of democracy, nor the tragic events of the Tiananmen square massacre.
It is illegal for the post office to open and analyse your mail, and the police force needs a court order in order to wire tap your phone.
So why is it legal for corporation to view your emails, and the government to restrict what websites you are allowed to watch?
We can not continue to let our civil liberties to be undermined, and our freedom to get whittled away.
We need to campaign for electronic privacy to be treated the same way as physical privacy.
Sure, like the cinema, books, and computer games, websites should have a warning if they aren’t suitable for adults. But you shouldn’t be restricting adults simply because a sub section of society deem it in-appropriate.
Please also note, with Australia implementing this filtering system we are giving other countries more examples of a western society with restricted content, and thus other countries would be more likely to setup their own filters.
We should be working to ENABLE freedom of speech, instead of restricting it.
I will be exercise my right to NOT vote for Labor, so that Australia does not waste Millions of dollars on a system of governance and control that it can use to manipulate the people.
WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS!
Resources :
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/163063,commentary-why-we-dont-need-a-filter.aspx
http://slash.dotat.org/~newton/
http://www.efa.org.au/2008/10/25/the-mark-newton-letter/
http://twitter.com/Newtonmark
http://www.news.com.au/technology/web-filter-will-compromise-national-broadband-network-say-providers/story-e6frfro0-1225811213048
http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-views-on-mandatory-isp-filtering.html
http://www.ecu.edu.au/pr/downloads/Untangling_The_Net.pdf
—
Michael Kubler
A concerned citizen of Australia.
UPDATE :
It looks like my type of letter is useless. If your interested in making a difference, then send a complicated snail mail letter. As explained here : http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/12/16/dont-waste-your-time-waste-theirs-a-guide-to-writing-to-ministers/
If you don’t understand what the whole Internet filtering system is all about, then here’s an explanation about putting speed humps on roads : http://digihub.smh.com.au/node/1484
