Telstra says Net filtering useless, GetUp wants re-think

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 05 December 2008 08:54

Strategy

Telstra’s Greg Winn has poured cold water over the Government’s filtering plans, saying it's akin to trying to “boil the ocean” and that people will find a way around it, while GetUp!’s campaign to “Save the Net” draws huge support from Australians.

As the Internet filtering debate continues rocking Australian ISPs, Internet users and the Federal Government, Australia’s biggest ISP and dominant Telco, Telstra, has shared its views on the merits or otherwise of filtering.

Telstra executive Greg Winn, speaking at a journalist and analyst briefing on the NBN (National Broadband Network) described filtering the Internet as "like trying to boil the ocean", and followed this up by saying "as soon as you install it, someone is going to find a way around it".

Although Telstra is popular with Australians in that it is the largest ISP, it still has many detractors, although those detractors will undoubtedly be pleased to see that Telstra also believes filtering the Internet is a needless, bad idea.

Online advocacy group “GetUp!”, which with 230,000 members has more members than every political party combined, has started a “Save the Net!” campaign and has received incredible support from the community.

Urging a government re-think on net censorship, GetUp! is asking the “Federal Government needs to re-think its plans to censor the internet and consider the impact it will have on thousands of Australian households and businesses.”

GetUp! says it has received the support of “more than 75,000 thousand Australians who fear it will slow internet speeds to a crawl and fail to stop unwanted content”, and all this in “less than one week after Federal Government said it would press ahead with its internet censorship plans for December 24”.

GetUp! National Director Simon Sheikh said: "Australians agree that criminal activity needs to be stopped but they know that this net censorship plan won't work.

"The Government's net censorship plans will do little more than slog Aussie families and businesses with slower internet speeds and higher internet bills - without making a significant dent in criminal activity.

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