Internet censorship to be implemented in Australia.

Ginuad Amarasen · Post by **Ginuad Amarasen** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:14 am

Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, is known to be a great admirer of Chinese culture*.

This appears to have shown up in his new policy to censor the internet. This is of course being conducted under the typical excuse of trying to combat child pornography. This is, of course, total balderdash because any online security expert knows damn well that a national blacklist will be almost totally ineffective against such sites.

The irony is that some of my geekier friends voted for this guy because he promised to spend a lot of public money on upgrading internet infrastructure to make faster broadband possible. Jokes on them: Enjoy your slow-arse internet with anything the Christian Right dislikes blocked from view.

*Selectively, of course. While things like nuclear power give him the willies (despite him being very vocal on the importance of reducing CO2 emissions), weilding indiscriminate power over a basic information resource excites him.

Tolthar Lockbar · Post by **Tolthar Lockbar** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:42 am

This sounds like a good idea!

Now your government just needs to work on a few other things while they are on it:

one-party rule
punishment without trial or with a mock trial, for political offenses
nationalization private property

and combined with the censorship laws, you will have yourself a nice good old fashion totalitarian government! But wait, theres more!

I can see it now: The Great (Fire) Wall of Australia (tm).

Ginuad Amarasen · Post by **Ginuad Amarasen** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:45 am

Well, I'd like to think that such things aren't in the Labor Party's plans.

But so far, every time I've given them the benefit of the doubt in the "Oh well, I guess they won't be too bad" stakes, they've thoroughly dissappointed me.

Let's hope this trend doesn't continue, or I might have to apply for a Refugee Visa in the US

It's funny how people voted the Howard government out because they were getting arrogant and too fond of legislative sledgehammers, and now they've gone and voted in someone even more arrogant and fond of legislative sledgehammers. Rudd's clearly carried the whole "Anything Howard can do, I can do better" thing rather too far.

I bet he re-instates that ridiculous de-facto national ID card, too.

musashi · Post by **musashi** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:17 pm

The specific reference in the first post cites the November elections. Could this report be a smear? Sour grapes?

Rudd's bio on Wikipedia seems to indicate that he has deep connections in China. The religious perspectives the bio relates seem very conservative.

Thought television in Australia had a higher sex – lower violence slant than the US. Is it just soft-core porn that the social engineers seek to legitimize?