The Australian Internet Filter Controversy

Yipe! The panic is spreading all over the web, both within and without the land of Oz. This is happening because the Australian government is considering wide-scale Internet filtering, with no way to opt-out, for all web users. And it has nearly everyone concerned in an uproar. Just a few clips about what we're talking about:

From The Brisbane Times:

"The Federal Government is attempting to silence critics of its controversial plan to censor the internet, which experts say will break the internet while doing little to stop people from accessing illegal material such as child pornography."

From ABC News:

"To provide a safer environment for children online we need to focus on areas posing a real threat to young Australians like cyber-bullying, identity theft and online predators. Filtering does nothing to reduce these risks. Just like we educate children about staying safe outside, we need to educate them about staying safe online. Walk them through it just like we'd walk them to the park. If that means educating parents unfamiliar with the Internet as well, then let's do it."

From a blog at chycho.com:

"If Australians allow this scheme to be implemented, then it means that they will be living under Totalitarianism, a political system where a 'state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life.'"

From ArsTechnica:

"Assuming this is in fact the way the scheme is implemented in practice, it raises plenty of troubling questions. 'Illegal' is a broad definition, leaving users wondering exactly what kinds of content will end up falling prey to the government's apparently mandatory filtering restrictions. Will Big Content be ringing up the Aussie government soon to have tracker sites added to the blacklist? What about sites that discuss topics like at-home bomb making, or something a little less explosive, like DVD decryption tools? And how about those sites that advise users on how to get around the filters? Will various Wikipedia pages be blocked?"

You get the picture. It's unusual to see this much drama over a technology story Down Under. This one has led to some speculative wild mass guessing, so much so that it's almost making it harder to sort out the real story.

May we point out, even though we're not on board with the idea, that there's still some limitations to how much damage this can do to the average web surfer. To make a brief list:

- There will always be businesses and entities which need unrestricted access to Internet traffic in order to function. Law enforcement comes to mind. ISPs themselves, deep-level technology companies, universities doing research, and so forth. After all, before you can decide what to filter, somebody has to see the unfiltered version.

- Australia is a major world economy. Policing every byte of data may be feasible - barely - on a scale of, say, North Korea, but Australia is a major world market player, and it doesn't make sense that huge, multinational corporations will settle for being hobbled without saying anything about it.

- Most Internet censorship can be subverted. There's Tor, for example. There's also the popular Freenet. And then there's anonymous remailers. Basically, there's just no way to censor the Internet effectively. If it came to the worst, you and a friend in another country could swap encrypted email, you asking for certain materials and your friend sending them to you as emailed attachments.

So, just as a note of caution, could we put down the torches and stop tying nooses for a minute? We're absolutely certain that cooler heads will prevail. This doesn't mean that the plan is a good idea; it merely points out that the plan to filter all Internet traffic for a country the size of - and technically savvy as - Australia is such a ridiculous proposition that it won't be realized.

To support these views, we'll be examining some aspects of Internet censorship and privacy tools in future posts.

Filed Under: Security Technology • The Internetz