The following statement was released by the Socialist Alliance national executive.
One of the greatest things about the internet is the freedom to circulate information about things the mainstream media heavily censors.
The freedom of the internet will soon be curtailed if the federal government gets its way. Internet service providers will be forced to censor the internet for all Australians.
The government claims it is doing this to protect children from inappropriate content. But children are most likely to access inappropriate material through emails, chat rooms and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The filter won't stop this.
Not just child sex abuse material banned
The list of material to be banned includes material that is "refused classification". This includes much more than child sexual abuse material. Only 18% of the websites on the current blacklist contain child sexual abuse material.
The only material targeted that is illegal to possess in Australia is child sexual abuse material. In all states and territories, except for Western Australia and certain prescribed areas of the Northern Territory, it is legal for adults to view and own material that has been refused classification.
Material that is legal in print form will be blocked on the internet.
Items that "promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence" will also be banned. Some items that have been banned include a satirical article called "The Art of Shoplifting" in a student newspaper and a computer game featuring an amateur graffiti artist who uses graffiti and tagging as a way to protest.
Given that Australia's anti-terror laws have been used to convict people whose only crime was to have particular views regardless of whether they intended to act on them, this section of the legislation is likely to be interpreted broadly.
The list of websites to be blocked will be based on the current Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist, and will be supplemented by lists from international organisations such as Internet Watch Foundation.
Banned sites will be secret
The list of banned sites will likely be secret so it will be hard to know what content the government has banned. It is not known whether there will be any way to have content removed from the prohibited list.
When ACMA's list of banned sites was leaked in 2009, about half of the sites on the list were not related to child porn and included a number of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, christian sites, the website of a tour operator and a Queensland dentist.
If the government gets away with censoring the internet, the politicians are likely to extend the types of sites that are banned. Some right-wing politicians have already suggested banning websites relating to sexual health, drug use, terrorism, and anorexia.
Socialist Alliance condemns the federal government's proposed internet filter.
The Socialist Alliance believes:
• the government should not have the right to decide what information people access;
• the filter will not protect children and laws already exist to penalise criminal behaviour;
• the fact that banned sites will be kept secret and that half the banned sites are not related to child porn indicates that the government is not honest about its motives;
• given the way the government has used the anti-terror laws to convict people of thought "crimes", we should not allow the government to censor the internet; and
• an internet filter would be the thin edge of the wedge — if the government succeeds in implementing the internet filter, it is likely to include more and more sites on the banned list.