Let Me Digress

Posted By kahmelb on March 18, 2009

…is that you can not talk about censorship.

So says Wikileaks.  If you haven’t heard of Wikileaks, think of it as the Wikipedia for whistleblowers in government and big business, a site dedicated to opposing oppressive regimes, corrupt and abusive governments and large scale unethical corporate practices.

Apparently, our Government wants to stop all Australians from looking at it.

I am not joking here, peoples.

A bunch of Wikileaks pages turned up on the ACMA (Australian Communications Media Authority, for those not in the know) blacklist of dark and dastardly websites the other day.  This is the list of sites which can not be hosted or even linked to from within Australia.  So if I linked to the particular page of Wikileaks which is on the blacklist, for example, I could be fined a lazy $11,000 AUD.  

Seriously.  A site dedicated to exposing corruption and oppression, and our Government has made it illegal to host it or link to at least part of it.

Luckily, I can legally link to the Wikileaks page which discusses the Australian Government ban in detail. 

Am I the only one who finds all this utterly terrifying?

Considering The SMH article in which I first read about it flickered up towards the top of the online headlines for all of 5 minutes before disappearing forever into the ether, I could be forgiven for thinking so, humph.

Fortunately, I know Electronic Frontiers Australia and GetUp are at least two organisations who are working their wee little butts off to oppose such rampant and dangerous censorship laws – so go patronise their sites and support their organisations please.

(Okay, I know this story broke a couple of days ago and I’m only just commenting on it now, but I’ve also got to work for a living, darn it, and blogs such as this are soooooo content hungry.  It’s like Little Shop of Horrors around here sometimes, with a great big man-eating plant demanding food and me having to kill things just to feed it.  But I promise, I only kill those who deserve it.  Trust me.)

Right, where was I?  That’s right – blatant censorship for cynical political gain.  So let me just remind you what’s at stake:  if the Government get their mandatory internet filtering system through – and they are pushing forward with it, full coal-burning-engine ahead – all sites on the blacklist will be blocked at ISP level.  That is, ever single site on that very secret list – because we Australian citizens are not allowed to know what is on the list, lest we question it or something – will be banned in this country.  And you can be darn sure you’ll cop more than a $11,000 fine if you happen to be technologically savvy enough to burst the filter and get through.

It’s called censorship and it’s ugly.  It’s a tool of oppressive regimes and authoritarian governments – indeed, exactly the likes of which Wikileaks seeks to expose – use indiscriminately. 

So let’s recap:  the one thing we know about the secret blacklist of sites is that a Wikileaks page is on it.  Not child porn, not race hate, not terrorism, not even freedom fighters in disguise.  Just a site promoting freedom of speech, honest political dissent, considered criticism of policy and vigorous debate.

You know, all those things which democracy is meant to thrive upon.

So when you hear all those discussions about the Government’s mandatory internet-filtering proposals and you think well, maybe, because, you know, we must save the children or something (regardless of the fact most child protection groups would much rather the money be spent on measures which, you know, actually do something to protect children), think of this: the only thing we really know about the secret blacklist is a website defending democracy is on it.  

And, oh, I never did tell you why the Wikileaks pages were banned, did I?  (If you were thinking critically you would have been asking that question to yourself well before now.)

The evil and dastardly page is banned because it publishes a leaked document from the Danish government.  A document which contains Denmark’s secret list of banned websites.

Absolutely true.  Absolutely and totally true.  Click here and go read the detail for yourselves.

You’d laugh it if wasn’t so terrifying.

Kath

***UPDATE ***

Since I originally drafted this post, Wikileaks has obtained what appears to be a full list of sites from the ACMA’s blacklist.  Maybe half are the really revolting, and already very illegal, child exploitation type sites – content which is already illegal under existing laws.  And which, incidently, in being leaked demonstrates just how dangerous a collection of this sort of information in one place can be.

The other half…?  A bit of online poker, a bit of straight and very legal porn, some consensual fetish sites (again very legal), a chunk of YouTube, gay sites, euthanasia sites, fringe religions, Christian sites, Wikipedia sites, Wikileaks sites of course, the website of a tour operator and even a dentist in Queensland.  This is when the list is just over 2300 long.  The Australian Government has previously said they want to boost the numbers on the list up to more than 10,000. 

So look out Queenslanders, your dental health might soon be in right trouble, is all I can say! 

My source for this update was the following article from The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/03/19/1237054961100.html

Categories: Unsolicited opinion
Tags: censorship, civil liberties, freedom of speech, internet filtering, Wikileaks