Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 30 March 2010 23:09
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
A news report in Forbes says that China has blocked Google with its great firewall, now the world waits to see if Australia’s Minister for Censorship, Senator Stephen Conroy, will do the same following his outrageous attacks on Google.
OPINION: Australia's glorious Minister for Broaband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has been in the news for months over his nefarious plans to censor the Internet in Australia under the guise of protecting users from content normally refused classification in other mediums.
As noted in my previous article on the subject, “
Captain Conroy, Internet Enforcer, slams Google”, the erstwhile and presumably otherwise well-meaning but still meddling Senator has slammed Google in a yesterday’s
ABC radio debate on Internet filtering in Australia.
The Minister tried to paint Google as a company that has had its own issues with privacy and not doing evil, which are certainly valid points, and even iTWire’s own James Riley has written an article on Google being “
the world’s biggest filter”, but Google’s stance on Internet censorship is plain: it says no.
The Minister’s stance on Internet censorship of refused classification material is plain, too – he wants it. There’s clearly nothing more important for the Minister than meddling with the Internet!
But what free thinking person would ever believe, following hundreds of years of government meddling in human affairs, that any government will keep it promises of not going too far in the censorship department?
Just because Australia lives in a democracy doesn’t mean the government can’t turn against the people – it has happened time and again in other societies, and as Ronald Reagan said, liberty is not passed down through the bloodline but must be fought for by every new generation.
Letting the government get its foot in the door of censoring anything online could soon easily turn into a censorship elephant in the room that comes with a free camera attached to your TV and a boot ready to smash into your face.
Is it all too fantastic to believe? Please read on to page two for details on China’s latest actions against Google… if it hasn’t already been censored by the King of Censorship, Senator Stephen Conroy himself…
click on to find out!
