August 3, 2010 (CAP News Wire) – The likelihood of Australia’s government successfully censoring the Internet in that country — thus blocking out some Internet gambling sites, as well as a host of other web content it deems unsavory — may be fading fast, according to recent reports.
Internode, one of Australia’s larger Internet carriers, has declared that it will not participate in such censorship. On top of that, the country’s Communications Minister and chief cheerleader for the censorship plan, Stephen Conroy, has “announced the government would hold off on its filter proposal until a year-long review of refused classification rules had been completed,” according to The Age.
”It [the proposed ban] covers a tiny proportion of the content that would need to be blocked for it to be effective and has already been shown to contain URLs of legal content that Australians would expect to access,” commented John Lindsay, regulatory and corporate affairs manager for Internode.
But three larger Internet service providers — Telstra, Optus and Primus — have said they’ll comply with the censorship plan, at least in theory. And “Australia’s third-largest provider, iiNet, was yesterday mulling over whether or not it would participate,” The Age continues.
Internode’s announcement has been met with support from the general public. “Good on Internode for taking on Conroy. Hopefully this has a snowballing effect on the other big ISPs,” comments one reader of The Age’s article.
“Good on Internode for upholding freedom of speech,” writes another reader. “The capitulation of the major ISPs is deplorable. I for one will switch to them at the earliest opportunity.”
“Remember a vote for the ALP is a vote for internet censorship,” writes yet another.