Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Australia’s inane internet censorship plan

Clean Feed the system is called, and it is intended to save kiddies from porn and kiddie fiddlers. Clean Feed is the product of a bunch of politicians who wouldn’t know a piece of code from a hole the their backs!

For months now I’ve been trying to find out why I have been denied access to a site on which I was a contributor ragebot. As Kvatch points out –

“The Frogette and I have discovered that our IP (Ragebot and 10 other sites) is being blocked by at least 3 Australian ISPs. We've only got one confirmed as allowing access to Ragebot.”

I thought this was a new form of political censorship, but it turns out to be an old form of political stupidity:

Optus joins filter trial to censor the internet

THE nation's second-largest internet service provider, Optus, has joined a broadband filtering trial as part of the federal Government's plans to censor the world wide web. The company has started a six-week evaluation that will conclude in early July.
Optus is the eighth internet service provider to participate in the scheme, joining Primus, Highway 1, Nelson Bay Online, Netforce, OMNIconnect, TECH 2U and Webshield.

Optus, owned and operated by the totalitarian Singapore Government, had no problems signing up with this draconian and stupefyingly useless internet censorship program. As Kvatch pointed out, one major ISP didn’t join the gang, and that was Telstra, headed by Mr Potato Head (Sol Trujillo). Sol had his own issues with Australian’s, and generally told the government to ‘get a dog up you!’

Anyway, I was dealing with the nice folk from Singapore – where they still hang people – and eventually received this reply before they refused further discussion:

From Optus ‘Support’ (16-04-2009)

I have examined the previous reports you mentioned, the trace routs included in the reports clearly show the fault beyond the optus network. Once a connection leaves our boundary point there is very little that can be done.
It was requested that you contact the administrator of the domaine (sic) trying to be contacted.

That was about the same response I had to my complaint of paying for broadband and receiving dial-up – between drop outs. Sol is still not forgiven for screwing the system, but obviously others are being added to the list – ‘come the revolution…’

Also note, the article in The Australian was dated May and I had been fighting this since February . So here is a bit about 'Clean Feed', the culprit it appears, according to those already doing battle (emphasis mine):

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan called, Clean Feed, to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.

Although the final details of the filtering plans have been kept under wraps, the Minister is on record as being firmly committed to a mandatory clean-feed internet to Australian homes, schools and public computers.

Even the most accurate software the Government has tested would incorrectly block 10,000 sites in every million.

In short, as the best experts in the country unanimously agree, Conroy's plan does not make sense technically.

I intend to reveal more about this moronic situation, and about the equally dumb steps leading up to it. I should have been on guard earlier but actually allowed for some intelligent thinking in the process. For now I leave you with an info link - Download censorship filtering Fact Sheets (PDF, 2MB) or visit -
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7 comments:

abi said...

Slow down Internet access for all of Australia? Waste 10s of millions of taxpayer dollars? Sounds like a plan.

And all in the name of protecting kids. What, aren't there any parents in Australia?

D.K. Raed said...

Damn! Censorship is uglier than the stuff they are trying to protect the kiddies from.

Schools or parents can always put filters or blocks on their computer. Why mess with everyone's access?

Cartledge said...

There is more story to come on parental control, but I want to know if the 'political' control is intended or just collateral.
At least I know wat my next approach to the pollies will be. The real piss off is that there is no rel ban list because the bastards have no idea what they are blocking!

abi said...

Yes, political censorship is what my suspicious mind immediately lept to. This attempt to "protect the kids" could be nothing more than a dry run for a darker plan.

Cartledge said...

Abi, use of Orwellian language usually presses my buttons. In this case censorship is described as filtering, on top of the lofty ideal of fighting porn.
I'm not sure how any government can still believe any prohibition really works. I a in the process of asking them directly.

lindsaylobe said...

I am also (presumably) filtered out of Ragebot - my provider is Iinet Ltd – Ozemail

Best wishes

Cartledge said...

Welcome back Lindsay, hope it was a wonderful trip. Here I’ve been bogged down in a range of issues, the eviction I will post soon, the IP block I’ve sent off emails to the PM, Comms Minister and my MP. Only one response on that to date ----
“Thanks and well done. I will be interested in the reply.” - Oakeshott, Robert (MP)
Glad I don’t own a car yard, but then an independent MP is a bit limited.