Thursday, April 15, 2010

Google goes to Washington on filter


From the Australian Newspaper online. 
GOOGLE Australia has voiced its concerns over the Rudd Government's controversial mandatory ISP filtering plan directly to the US State Department.
One of the internet giant's biggest worry is the filter's scope, which it believes to be too broad.
It is understood the matter was raised just over a week ago with representatives from the State Department.
The filter is meant to block content rated Refused Classification (RC) that includes, but is not limited to, child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and material that advocates terrorist acts.
Google and various internet experts believe the RC list could also potentially contain legitimate material.
The revelation comes following a report in The Australian on March 29 that the State Department had raised the filtering issue with Australian government officials.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's spokeswoman this week confirmed that Australian and US officials have discussed ISP filtering.
The US government is against internet censorship -- a view reinforced this week by the country's ambassador to Australia,Jeff Bleich, who said he believes child pornographers can caught without resorting to mandatory internet filters.
Google Australia's head of public policy and government affairs, Iarla Flynn, said the company has both privately and publicly aired its views to various parties, including the US State Department.
Mr Flynn could not elaborate on those discussions.
"Our primary concern is the scope of the filter. We think it's too broad because RC goes well beyond child sexual abuse material and has a whole number of grey areas," he said.
"For example, it would seek to block material promoting or providing instruction in any crime and that would capture videos showing how to do graffiti ... in certain circumstances graffiti can be a crime, (but filtering) that to us seems excessive."
Mr Flynn said the boundaries of the proposed filtering were "very vague" and had the potential to go further through scope-creep.
"Euthanasia is a crime, therefore material which talks about or promotes euthanasia can also be captured within the scope of this filter," he said. "On an issue like euthanasia -- which is politically and socially controversial -- we think governments should be very, very slow to be blocking access to information on a subject like that."
Online free speech advocate Irene Graham has said that RC includes material deemed to "offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults".
The depiction of actual sexual activity between consenting adults involving lawful fetishes could also be classified as RC content and blocked by the filter.
The Classification Board decides what publications, films and computer games can be sold in Australia; there is no category for the internet.
State and federal attorney's-general decide on the guidelines for RC markings based on "community standards".
Senator Conroy has maintained that ISP filtering is one of many weapons in the government's cyber-safety armada.
His spokeswoman could not say if the minister agreed or disagreed with the US Ambassador's comments, but she reiterated the government's stance: it does not support RC content being available on the internet.
"RC material is already prohibited on Australian websites," she said.
"Under Australia’s existing Classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies, it is not on library shelves, you cannot watch it on a DVD or at the cinema, and it is not shown on television.
"As we have consistently said, ISP-level filtering is just one part of the government’s $125.8 million cyber-safety policy, which also includes education, research and international cooperation. Importantly, the policy (provides) $49m for law enforcement by providing 91 additional Australian Federal Police officers to the Child Protection Unit."
Under the government's policy, RC material hosted here or overseas would be added to the filtering blacklist based on a public complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
"The policy does not apply to X18+ material and no material other than RC-content will be blocked," she said.

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