http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-filter/telstra-optus-to-begin-censoring-web-next-month/story-fn5j66db-1226079954138
The eminent Christopher Hitchens has said that he likes to begin his days with a distinct sense of 'annoy'; I'm paraphrasing here but it is an emotion that acts as his motivator to write and to challenge the stupidity that goes on in the world.
This post of "Weekly Inspiration" is unique in the sense that I have done this segment with the intent of it being largely positive and a means to direct people towards links that instilled in me a positive inspiration. Well I am now breaking the mould as I, agreement with Hitchens, have felt that negative inspiration is just as constructive.
If this linked story turns out to be true, those of us who are concerned about individual freedom and the government's innate desire to subdue it will all collectively feel the distinct sense of annoy. This is a sense beyond shock, as we've known of government intentions to 'filter' the net for some time; this is more a sense of dread, disgust and dismay. The issue of censorship had faded away as more immediate (deliberate perhaps?) government-instigated disasters began to flood the news-space, but it now seems to be cropping up once again.
What I'm unsure about with this development is that it seems to be a voluntary initiative by Telstra and Optus, both whom I was under the impression that they had been attempting to make the push to censorship difficult for the government. But now if it turns out they are now pioneering a policy of censorship, I can imagine some mass-emigration to begin occurring with those ISPs. I wonder too what will the state of Australia's 'filtering' be when the entire country is supplied Internet services entirely from a monopoly company umbillically linked to the government.
I write this as I am forced to resubmit an advertisement for a bunch of movies to be released in August. The reason is that one of the titles briefed to me was rated R18+ and as you can imagine in the milquetoast society that Australia has become, certain publications cannot advertise movies rated as such. I suspect that the nature of film distribution in South Australia has something to do with it but in any case, I stand by the same principle... No government imposed rule should be able to prevent a population that is statistically made up a group of law-abiding, self-determinant, intellectually-competent adults from consuming media that does not directly, in its production, cause explicit and deliberate harm to anyone.
The eminent Christopher Hitchens has said that he likes to begin his days with a distinct sense of 'annoy'; I'm paraphrasing here but it is an emotion that acts as his motivator to write and to challenge the stupidity that goes on in the world.
This post of "Weekly Inspiration" is unique in the sense that I have done this segment with the intent of it being largely positive and a means to direct people towards links that instilled in me a positive inspiration. Well I am now breaking the mould as I, agreement with Hitchens, have felt that negative inspiration is just as constructive.
If this linked story turns out to be true, those of us who are concerned about individual freedom and the government's innate desire to subdue it will all collectively feel the distinct sense of annoy. This is a sense beyond shock, as we've known of government intentions to 'filter' the net for some time; this is more a sense of dread, disgust and dismay. The issue of censorship had faded away as more immediate (deliberate perhaps?) government-instigated disasters began to flood the news-space, but it now seems to be cropping up once again.
What I'm unsure about with this development is that it seems to be a voluntary initiative by Telstra and Optus, both whom I was under the impression that they had been attempting to make the push to censorship difficult for the government. But now if it turns out they are now pioneering a policy of censorship, I can imagine some mass-emigration to begin occurring with those ISPs. I wonder too what will the state of Australia's 'filtering' be when the entire country is supplied Internet services entirely from a monopoly company umbillically linked to the government.
I write this as I am forced to resubmit an advertisement for a bunch of movies to be released in August. The reason is that one of the titles briefed to me was rated R18+ and as you can imagine in the milquetoast society that Australia has become, certain publications cannot advertise movies rated as such. I suspect that the nature of film distribution in South Australia has something to do with it but in any case, I stand by the same principle... No government imposed rule should be able to prevent a population that is statistically made up a group of law-abiding, self-determinant, intellectually-competent adults from consuming media that does not directly, in its production, cause explicit and deliberate harm to anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment