The government’s Clean Feed proposal is back and could be messing with various facets of your life in 2011. The Communications minister released the ISP Live Filtering Pilot trial report today and announced that the government would introduce the requisite legislation in the parliament next year. If it passes, ABC News reports that the filter will be implemented in 12 months.
A multitude of tweets echoed through the chamber this afternoon decrying the proposal, but like this post and so many more that will cover the topic again, most are “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The EFA released their response this afternoon (included below the fold) and Crikey’s Pollytics blog already has some evidence-based speculation on the numbers of votes and seats this proposal could win or lose.
When I talked about the No Clean Feed campaign at Bar Camp Canberra this year, I lamented that so many of the tactics had been ineffective from the outset, or had potential but had been poorly executed. Poor turn out for (and coverage of) rallies, poor engagement with mainstream media, poor engagement with the private sector about what the proposal might cost them in technical delays (especially with primarily online businesses and online advertising), nevermind the threats to free speech and the cultural challenges that poses. The audience seemed to think that it was a matter of saving face, that if Conroy were given a way out, he would take it. Guess not. Targeting Conroy himself if futile; if he were to go, who’s to say the next person in the chair won’t just progress the proposal? Unfollowing Rudd on Twitter or getting the #nocleanfeed hashtag trending will do nothing more than give a journo a nice last para factoid.
So where does that leave us? I’m still trying to figure that out. EFA is still advocating direct engagement with your local member, but I think that a data-driven approach would work best. GetUp could use the data that Pollytics & others publish to best target limited campaign resources. Meanwhile, online folk need to spread the word to their offline friends and family rather than preaching to the choir. Educate parents that this filter isn’t going to save their kids from the threat of accidental porn viewing that didn’t exist in the firstplace.
I’m stuck. Short of pooling resources for lobbyists, what can those who object to the Clean Feed do that will have any effect?
Net censorship trial report brings more questions than answers
Electronic Frontiers Australia today welcomed the release of the Government’s Internet filtering report but predicted that the debate is far from over.
“There are few surprises in this document,” said EFA spokesperson Colin Jacobs. “Given the pilot’s modest goals, it was designed from the beginning to pass. Although it may address some technical issues, what it leaves out is far more important – exactly what will be blocked, who will decide, and why is it being attempted in the first place?”
The report found that generally, ISPs were able to block a government-provided blacklist of several thousand web sites without a major impact on service levels. It also found that circumvention was trivial for motivated users, calling the effectiveness of the proposal into question.
The report indicated that there were costs associated with filtering, which would hit smaller ISPs the hardest. The expected costs for Australian Internet users were not addressed in the report, nor were other alternatives such as increasing support for home-based filters. Although several ISPs also tested filtering beyond the government blacklist, the report finds they were only 84% accurate in the best case.
It’s not unexpected that the censorship proved technically possible. EFA notes that, since the election, the government’s “cyber-safety” plan has shifted away from providing tools to shield minors on the web to a black list of “almost exclusively RC (Refused Classification)” content aimed at adults.
“The Government knows this plan will not help Australian kids, nor will it aid in the policing of prohibited material. Given the problems in maintaining a secret blacklist and deciding what goes on it, we’re at a loss to explain the Minister’s enthusiasm for this proposal,” said Jacobs.
“We’ll be interested to see how the Internet service providers respond. We know they are critical of having such intrusive Government interference in their networks,” he added.
Although the minister has hailed the pilot a success, many concerns about the proposal remain ignored. Neither draft legislation nor a comprehensive policy document have yet been released to the Australian public, though legislation is expected in 2010.
“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy. We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”
The reality is that most Govt MPs will ignore letters about the Internet filter. It is Govt policy, and they aren’t going to win any friends by speaking out against the most popular Labor leader in 15 years. Writing to bureaucrats (like Crikey suggested) is also a waste of time, since it just wastes their time, and the letters are never seen by the Ministers. Writing to the Opposition or Greens is a waste of time, since they can’t actually change it. The Libs are going to make a calculated decision (and are most likely going to come down on the side of “family safety” and blocking p-rn. The Greens already oppose the filter – big old waste of time.Online action won’t work. 1000s of emails won’t work, unless its 10′s of thousands. Twitter action won’t work since the Govt doesn’t really care about Twitter (see how successful the Iran Twitter actions were in getting new elections held – not at all).The problem is that the filter seems like a marginal issue that only inconveniences weirdos and nerds – who aren’t demographically significant when it comes to elections.Get Up’s idea of targeting electorates with a campaign will not work for this problem. Even if geeks and internet tech heads feel strongly about this issue, in each electorate there are only a few hundred like-minded people (max). These people’s change of vote will be off-set by other minor issue groups and by the general swing of the election. What’s more, even people who feel strongly on this issue are still more likely to vote on a major issue like jobs, the economy, interest rates, climate change, health, education, leadership, etc.EFA and NoCleanFeed needs to start fundraising, and using that money to lobby business and the bureaucrats directly. EFA has a lot of good will. It needs to sit down with a professional and nut out a strategy for 2010, then get as many supporters as possible on a skype conference call or web chat, and sell that strategy to its supporters. The “Pirate Party” is not going to be a big help here (more likely to be a hindrance).Also, the NoCleanFeed needs to seriously change its messaging – at the moment it is shrill and marginal – many of the columns are near-hysterical. I’ve written about my views here: http://bit.ly/7yR1C0.CheersAlex
Hmmm. For some reason, there are no paragraphs, which has ruined the link:http://bit.ly/7yR1C0