From Alex Kidman and Bluescreen in a rollicking "It's a joke Joyce" mood yesterday:
"Bluescreen's Canberra correspondent got talking to some colleagues, who talked to somebody in the janitorial department, who then approached the department-of-leaking-stuff-to-the-opposition for the official word as to which filtering technology had been pre-approved to win the trials, in accordance with standard Government operating procedure.
Except that this time, there genuinely isn't just a single one.
Filtering technologies being assessed, so our janitorial spy tells us, include everything from the aforementioned whitelisting and image scanning all the way up to the mandatory introduction of Google Nothing. It's alleged that certain rural members of the Labour party were of the impression that Internet filtering involved Barramundi and lots of cheesecloth, but that couldn't be confirmed in writing, as apparently the individuals involved can't write yet, and had eaten their crayons again.
Bluescreen did stop to ponder over the chosen ISPs and consider contacting them, until he remembered that they'd probably be under a gag order anyway. In the case of Webshield, Bluescreen's email might not get through on the grounds that the company filters everything anyway, and one of Bluescreen's close relatives once fell foul of an Internet filter that viewed his blog as highly pornographic**.
There's always the one moderately large ISP in the list, Primus, and as Bluescreen was about to go ferreting around, the company pre-empted this by releasing a statement. Apparently the filtering technology will "be offered on an opt-in basis and customer participation will be totally voluntary. The ability for the customer to opt-in to the trial provides them ultimate freedom over their internet experience.***".
Bluescreen can't write comedy like that, but it wishes it could. If customers can opt out, will Primus gather any useful filtering information at all? What's the point in opting out if it's going to be a mandatory filter? Moreover, didn't the previous government offer exactly the same kind of Net filtering under an opt-in arrangement, only to have three families actually take them up on the offer. And didn't at least one of the teenagers affected just crack the filtering within five minutes anyway?
** Once again, utterly true. Apparently naked stick figures are hardcore filth. Who knew?
*** A genuine quote."
"Bluescreen's Canberra correspondent got talking to some colleagues, who talked to somebody in the janitorial department, who then approached the department-of-leaking-stuff-to-the-opposition for the official word as to which filtering technology had been pre-approved to win the trials, in accordance with standard Government operating procedure.
Except that this time, there genuinely isn't just a single one.
Filtering technologies being assessed, so our janitorial spy tells us, include everything from the aforementioned whitelisting and image scanning all the way up to the mandatory introduction of Google Nothing. It's alleged that certain rural members of the Labour party were of the impression that Internet filtering involved Barramundi and lots of cheesecloth, but that couldn't be confirmed in writing, as apparently the individuals involved can't write yet, and had eaten their crayons again.
Bluescreen did stop to ponder over the chosen ISPs and consider contacting them, until he remembered that they'd probably be under a gag order anyway. In the case of Webshield, Bluescreen's email might not get through on the grounds that the company filters everything anyway, and one of Bluescreen's close relatives once fell foul of an Internet filter that viewed his blog as highly pornographic**.
There's always the one moderately large ISP in the list, Primus, and as Bluescreen was about to go ferreting around, the company pre-empted this by releasing a statement. Apparently the filtering technology will "be offered on an opt-in basis and customer participation will be totally voluntary. The ability for the customer to opt-in to the trial provides them ultimate freedom over their internet experience.***".
Bluescreen can't write comedy like that, but it wishes it could. If customers can opt out, will Primus gather any useful filtering information at all? What's the point in opting out if it's going to be a mandatory filter? Moreover, didn't the previous government offer exactly the same kind of Net filtering under an opt-in arrangement, only to have three families actually take them up on the offer. And didn't at least one of the teenagers affected just crack the filtering within five minutes anyway?
** Once again, utterly true. Apparently naked stick figures are hardcore filth. Who knew?
*** A genuine quote."
.....and Nick Broughall at Gizmodo says we're f##ked!
"Riiight... This whole ISP-level filter thing is becoming an even bigger joke than we'd previously thought. Not only did the government only select half a dozen tiny ISPs to trial the effectiveness of their filter technology (ignoring the fact that the country's second and third largest ISPs were prepared to play along to give some meaningful data), but the largest of the selected ISPs is going to trial the filter as an opt-in option for customers......
One can only hope that the farcical nature of this trial process is because the government is slowly pulling away from the whole idea. Because if this is the best the government can do, we all need to be really, really scared for the future of our freedoms online..."
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