nocleanfeed photos on Flickr

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The Australian government has been promising a high speed national broadband network for a while. And now we know why - we'll need the extra capacity when the proposed mandatory net censorship cripples our access speeds.

If you don't want a slow, broken, censored internet experience, give our sorry excuse for a leader - and the monkey he put in charge of communications - a piece of your mind.

Keep your slimy hands off my porn, Kev!

Protest by Liam

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The clean feed protest, featuring Wintrmute

an unpleasant duty by Jes

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It's federal election time in Australia again. Last time it was an easy decision to throw out a government that had been in power so long that it had gone to their heads, causing them to attack everybody with a job.

This time around, it's not so clear-cut. We've got a religious reactionary fossil for an opposition leader, and a prime minister so afraid of appearing to stand for anything that she'll happily join the fossil in dog-whistling about boat people. Pauline Hanson and John Howard would be so proud of their political children.

I can't separate them. In a campaign full of hollow slogans ("moving forward", "real action", "yes we will", "stop the boats", etc), it's pretty telling that the one that sums up the national mood most is "they're all fucked".

Since neither Labor nor Liberal seem to want to take climate change seriously (both going so far as to sack leaders who believed in doing something about it), a vote for the Greens looks to be a good way of telling them that we care about it even if they don't. And since the parliament has been poisoned for the last six years by the Labs and Libs pandering to the right-wing religious nutjobs represented by Fielding's Family Freaks, it's time to tell them enough is enough on that front. The civil liberty-minded minors like the Australian Sex Party and the Secular Party look like good options for a protest vote there.

So, onto how all this ties in with the photo above. One of the scariest pander-to-the-freaks policies to emerge so far is Conroy's proposal to censor the web for all Australians. It won't stop the material it claims to block (and Conroy's insistence that anybody opposing it is pro-kiddie-porn is the height of insulting, dishonest arrogance), but it will lay a nice foundation for future governments wanting to restrict what Australians read. Orwell understood the power of controlling all the information flowing to and from the home, as do the governments of internet-filtering countries like China, Iran and North Korea.

So my #1 mission tomorrow is to vote below the line in the Senate, and to put Conroy and Fielding last. Yeah, below the line takes longer, but the alternative is letting the parties decide where your preferences go. Fielding got in last time on the preferences of lazy Labor voters, and this time around the Libs have done a similar deal for their above-the-line preferences to go to the Family Freaks.

It's never been easier to research your Senate vote and direct it exactly where you want - try Below the Line for an easy drag-and-drop way of working out your Senate ticket before you go to the booth. Or if you're in Victoria and want to put Conroy last whether you vote Labor, Liberal or otherwise, have a look at filter-conroy.org.

Good luck tomorrow.

What about the children? by moggs oceanlane

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Clarification for those who have asked for additional clarification re permissions on this image. Image was created by Moggs in SL (avatar is my own - Moggs Oceanlane) - and the words on the image are my own. Links to related campaigns that the image was addressing at the time it was posted.

Get Information. Take Action.

* No Clean Feed Campaign www.nocleanfeed.com

* Get Up Australia 'Save the 'Net' Campaign www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

* Game Censorship www.efa.org.au/category/censorship/r18

* Electronic Frontiers Australia / EFF www.efa.org.au (EFF represents Internet users around the world concerned with on-line freedoms and rights)

* "Clean" Feeds on Australian Artists - Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) www.anat.org.au/news_items/105

* Book reviews on 'Not in front of the children: "indecency," censorship, and the innocence of youth' by Marjorie Heins Does censorship really protect the children? / Not in front of the children

From GetUp Australia, No Clean Feed and the EFF

The Federal Government is planning to force all Australian servers to filter internet traffic and block any material the Government deems ‘inappropriate’. Under the plan, the Government can add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist.

Testing has already begun on systems that will slow our internet by up to 87%, make it more expensive, miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and accidentally block up to 1 in 12 legitimate sites. Our children deserve better protection - and that won't be achieved by wasting millions on this deeply flawed system.

Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.

What Can I Do?

Take Action. By letting policymakers know just what we think of the "clean feed" Internet filter, we can bring about a policy change.

You can help by contacting your representatives and spreading the word about this campaign.

From Moggs

Oh... but it'll never happen to us! It's all scare mongering

Do you know how often this argument has been used through history only to have people find that it (whaever 'it' may be) can, and has, happened to them? Personally, I'd rather stand up and have my say while I still can. It's possible I might look a bit silly later but I can live with that. Looking silly is so much better than remaining silent and taking the risk that my silence will be interpreted as agreement/support/compliance in this matter.

"What about the Children?!"

Yes. What about them? Do you really want your kids to grow up deprived of information and resources that the rest of the world has access to?

Do you realise that if you are concerned about what they see on the Internet, you can get filters for your home Internet?

Do you realise that adults use the Internet too... and the majority of online gamers are adults?

Do you realise that the Internet filtering trials slowed down our Internet significantly?

Australia is geographically isolated from the rest of the world - must we be isolated further by our lack of access to information, resources and entertainment?

People are outraged still at book burning and censorship that occured during wars - yet still they don't raise their voices to say no to further censorship.

Australians stop sitting around on your butts in silence... write to your members of parliament and speak up. To participate at the most basic levels in the campaigns will take you no more than 5 minutes... but you can get more involved if you want.

Don't you find it a little concerning that our Government don't even want to tell us what they are filtering?

Do you want to be the next North Korea or China in terms of censorship?

No? Well just visit either the www.nocleanfeed.com or www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442 and fill in the form to say no to censorship. It'll take you less than 5 minutes. If you care a lot, you could write a letter or email to your member of parliament, your local paper or the Prime Minister. Let your friends, family and colleagues know as they are likely to be affected too.

Willingly choosing ignorance through censorship just seems dumb to me.

Other links that might be of interest

Filtering the Internet restricts freedom of speech and hinders freedom of thought... these links may also be of interest.

* Electronic Frontier Foundation - defending freedom in the digital world: Free Speech

* The Blue Ribbon Campaign for Freedom of Speech

* Censorship and Free Speech

* Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - discussion about freedom of speech

* Freedom of Speech on Wikipdedia

* Free Speech search results from Google

internet censorship protestors by GnuChris