US ambassador critical of Conroy's internet filters

US ambassador critical of Conroy's internet filters

www.smh.com.au< br />

The US ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich has criticised the Rudd government's plan to filter the internet, saying the same goals can be achieved without censorship.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Here is my latest update regarding the appalling Rudd government's plans to censor the internet in Australia.

Now the US Ambassador has spoken out about it.

Coming soon.....

Australia.....The Nanny State......courtesy of Rudd.

Here's the article:

US ambassador critical of Conroy's internet filters

Asher Moses

April 13, 2010 - 12:00PM

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f386469c2157.jpg[/atsimg]

The US ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich has criticised the Rudd government's plan to filter the internet, saying the same goals can be achieved without censorship.

The federal government's $128.8 million Cyber Safety policy includes forcing ISPs to block access to certain websites and blacklist offensive material. Legislation to enable the scheme is set to be introduced this year.

On ABC's Q&A program last night, Mr Bleich said the "internet has to be free" and that there were other means of combating nasty content such as child pornography.

"We have been able to accomplish the goals that Australia has described, which is to capture and prosecute child pornographers ... without having to use internet filters," he said.

“We have other means and we are willing to share our efforts with them.... It's an ongoing conversation.”

The US State Department has previously said it has raised concerns regarding the filtering policy with the Australian government.

The comments came just as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy finished defending the filters in a speech to The Sydney Institute last night. Senator Conroy described the policy as a modest regulatory measure that will combat illegal activity.

"For all its technical brilliance, the internet is a distribution and communications platform. Having no regulation to combat illegal activity actually weakens all that is good about the internet," he said.

"This is a modest measure, which reflects long held community standards about the type of content that is unacceptable in a civilised society."

Senator Conroy's comments were similar to those he made in an interview with this website earlier this month. However, web experts have recoiled at the minister's suggestions that the internet is "not special" and should be regulated like other mediums.

Simon Sheikh, chief executive of the online activist group GetUp, quickly seized on Bleich's comments as further evidence that Senator Conroy's comments lacked support in the community. He called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to "step in and end this farce".

"The US Ambassador is the latest to join the swelling ranks opposing the scheme, which now include Google, Yahoo, Save The Children, Reporters Without Borders, The Greens, Senator Nick Xenophon, and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey," he said.

"Over 120,000 Australians have joined GetUp's campaign against the internet filter, and polls show 86% of Australians are concerned about the Govenrment's internet filter plans."

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

www.smh.com.au< br /> (visit the link for the full news article)

www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

GetUp! Sign the online petition

I saw him on QnA last night, and someone in the audience asked the awesome question "If the US is opposed to Chinas internet censorship, why have they been so quiet about Australias decision to move in that direction" - And its good to see that he is formally critical of it.

Spread the word.

Star and Flag coming up

Should be three Stars and Threee Flags

would if I could

(1) for featuring Asher Moses at the top of a thread

(2) for keeping Conroy's grab for fame before the public eye

(3) for focusing attention on this issue




UK is imposing the same restrictions on the Brits

US critical of the Oz restrictions

Both have been compared with China's internet filters



Interesting, isn't it ?

For decades, Aussies have been under the impression they were being run by the US

Moses' article suggests otherwise


Who is our Chinese-speaking Rudd taking instructions from, then ?

China ?

UK taking instructions from China too ?


Or are Oz and UK politicans under the guidance (control) of another body altogether --- one aligned against the US ?

reply to post by Dock9

Explanation: St*r for you!

The answer on China is YES! Here is why...

Australia: Cyber security center unveiled.

Next Elections lets Vote 1 China OK!

China DEMANDS!

As for being aligned against anyone, well how many current wars is China engaged in say in comparrison with another superpowered peer like the US?

Its more likely that they are aligned towards themselves i.e Pro-China rather than being Anti-[xyz]country!

Personal Disclosure: I note that in this post of my mine I talked about Obama needing to KowTow to China and show some RESPECT!

Well just maybe he read my Thread and liked my idea!

Why Does Obama Bow Like a Weakling?

P.S. Pssst! There be large sharks in the water at the moment...[Jaws theme music!]...

Chinese submarines and destroyers spotted in high seas near Okinawa, Japan

Chinese submarines, destroyers spotted in high seas near Okinawa+

Must be because...

The King is Dead ... Long Live the King!

I personally have accepted the fact that this filter will go ahead, even if Aust votes labor out in next election, Amen Abbott will certainly go ahead with this filter.

Here is some info on how to bypass the filter I found on Google, deadest child splay, no pun intended.


Bypassing ISP-level filtering is child's play and makes a mockery of government plans to censor Australia's internet access.


A Online Helper


A Great site to get a very good proxy is www.ultrareach.com... This is a small program that lets you go through the…

VPN-Master

world-secure-channel.com... - it's cool.

VPN Account

world-secure-channel.com...

The government wants to force all local ISPs to censor what Australians can see online, putting the country on par with the likes of China and North Korea. The joke is that school kids are already using free and simple tools to bypass such restrictions.

According to the government's own research, the filtering will degrade network performance by between 20 and 75 per cent - which makes a joke of plans for a faster national network. Civil libertarians also argue that censorship is a slippery slope, a concern heightened by the fact that those supporting the filtering are already talking about expanding it to include other stuff they don't like, such as online gambling and "illegal" sites.

The proposed filtering with give a handful of right wing nutjobs the power to control what we can see online. The fact the government wants to keep the list of banned sites a secret, and has tried to censor people speaking out against the filtering plans, should be ringing alarm bells.

Any school kid will tell you that bypassing internet filtering is ridiculously easy. One simple trick is to use a free web proxy, which acts as a middle man between you and the site you want to see. You'll find a long list of free web proxies and other such sites at FreeProxy.ru.

Just enter the name of the site into a proxy site's search box, such as banned-site.com, and the proxy site will then call up the site for you. This way banned-site.com doesn't know who you are, but also your ISP doesn't know you looked at banned-site.com. Kids are already using these kinds of sites to bypass school filters so they can access Facebook from the class room.
Another trick for bypassing filters is to dig an encrypted tunnel to the United States. It sounds complicated, but it's free and ridiculously easy to do and neither the government nor your ISP can see what you're up to

Two popular free VPN applications are HotSpot Shield (Mac and Windows) and AlwaysVPN (Mac, Windows, Linux). They add an advertising banner to your browser, which is a small price to pay.
>> Modules Anywhere >>> -->
>> Modules Anywhere >>> -->
If you're prepared to spend $5 per month for a faster connection you could look at Witopia and VPNOut. You don't need to know anything about networking and there's no messy configuration, you run the installers and they just work.

These applications give you dual citizenship as, with the click of a button, your computer looks like it's in the United States. Your digital Green Card means you can access US-only content from sites such as Rhapsody, Pandora, YouTube and Hulu. It also means you're bypassing any content filtering performed by your Australian ISP, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Australia's plans for mandatory content filtering will screw up the internet and give right wing nutjobs the power to censor what we see, yet it won't actually stop people who want to access banned sites.

If Australia goes through with plans to censor the internet, you can be sure civil libertarians will do everything they can to make bypass software freely available to everyone - as they've done in other totalitarian regimes.

If you're concerned about the Australian government's plans for filtering the internet, it'

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not

Hi Maybe...maybe not these are worrying times indeed, as per other thread chat.
US Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich was on the Q&A's panel, a ABC TV show, full video Question from the audience to Jeff Bleich.

"Given the United States commitment to Internet Freedom as articulated by Hillary Clinton in January does Australia's purposed Internet Filter threaten our relationship in anyway and can the United States continue to put pressure on Iran and China over Internet freedom if they don't similarly pressure Australia"

Zelong.

I'm so tired. And angry.

In times like this, I just wished the people would drag bastards like Rudd out inthe streets and FLOG HIM for even daring to suggest something like this. If every politician lived with fear of flogging when they suggested a law that infringed on the freedom of speech, or other liberties, of the people, we'd live in a much better world.

We should show no mercy towards people who are prepared to infringe on our freedom. Because if they don't respect ours, why should we respect theirs?

reply to post by Zelong


Zelong.....

Thanks mate.

I'm presently in the USA on business.

They can't believe it when I tell them what the appalling Rudd government is planning for us.

Neither can I.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

Post removed by Maybe...maybe not

[edit on 24-5-2010 by Maybe...maybe not]