This article is continuously being updated
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced that Optus will participate in the Australian Government’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) filtering pilot.
Senator Stephen Conroy outlined the process as being evidence-based.
“The participation of Optus will help ensure the Government obtains robust results from the pilot, which will inform the evidence-based development of our ISP filtering policy.”
This news comes after iiNet withdrew from the trial process.
Optus have released Q & A info on their website.
Tech Wired have been given the following information:
Gary Smith, General Manager of Regulatory Compliance at Optus said:
- Optus has been accepted into the Governments’ ISP filtering Pilot, due to begin on 22 May 2009.
- The trial will last for approximately six weeks.
- An area covering Sydney/Newcastle will be used for the trial.
- Residential customers in the chosen area will be eligible to participate.
- Customers can opt-out of the trial, even after it starts.
- Communication via email to customers will be issued from 22 April, 2009.
- Optus is participating in order to accurately gauge the effectiveness of filtering and the impact on its network, including download speeds and customer experience.
- Participation will be strictly limited to filtering ONLY the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist which contains URLs of prohibited content.
Maha Krishnapillai Director of Government and Corporate Affairs at Optus said:
“Optus has always been a strong advocate of promoting the safety and wellbeing of our customers online, in particular families.
Our participation in the ISP filter pilot is further proof of our commitment to explore ways in which Optus can contribute to the protection of families, and their safe use of the internet.
We are looking forward to working with Government on this initiative, and to better understand the implications of internet filtering.
Additionally, as an IIA accredited Family Friendly ISP, Optus informs customers of how they can obtain a content filter which they can download onto their home computer.
The telecommunications industry must be able to demonstrate that using the internet can be as easy, safe and secure as possible – especially for families using the internet to live, work and play.
Optus believes the best way to accurately gauge the impact that this type of filtering may have on our network -including download speeds and customer experience – is to play a proactive role in the pilot.”
Tech Wired Australia recently interviewed user Matthew Law from online forum Whirlpool. Matthew submitted an abortion website to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for review as to whether such content is prohibited in Australia.
THE PROPOSED MANDATORY INTERNET FILTER, talked up by the Australian Government to protect children online, is now delving into freedom of speech.
After a user under the alias of of xFOADx wrote on online forum Whirlpool this evening….
Image: Aeriana on Whirlpool
It is still unknown as to where we are at when it comes to Internet censorship in Australia. With the Government continuing to not respond to media enquiries, it continues to make it difficult for people like myself to write about their side of the story. What do we do whilst people continue to get frustrated about this? Complain? Well that’s about all we can do.
Read more
SENATOR STEPHEN CONROY, Minister for Broadband e.t.c e.t.c was questioned once again about his Internet filtering scheme in Question time today. This time by Senator Cory Bernardi, Senator for South Australia
Senator Cory Bernardi asked the Minister three simple questions:
“How many customers would an ISP need to enlist for a trial to be credible, and will the results be independently examined and verified?”
After hearing Senator Conroy’s response he commented and asked an additional question:
“Well President, I know that the minister failed miserably to answer that question of which was specific about the number of people for a trial to be credible, but I also note that in the Expression of Interest document that the second stream of the trial includes the filtering of other unwanted content, and I ask the Minister if this unwanted content has actually been identified, and who has it been identified by?”
Again Conroy dodged the question.
“I asked the minister: Considering that the stage for trialling filters was mandatory for ISP level filtering policy is only just beginning, why is he closing the Coalition Government, free personal computer level filter scheme on December 31, before having any alternative in place to assist families with online safety?”
Once again Senator Conroy read his department’s script about how the Government plans to implement the filter blah blah blah.
Watch below:
AFTER getting poor responses from Stephen Conroy’s office and being referred to my local member, Shadow MP Ian Macfarlane as discussed in Part One of this article, I started a small email chain with my local member.
First of all I want to publicly acknowledge that Mr Macfarlane has been quite efficient and reliable with his replies, and I appreciate he’s keeping in contact personally with the members of his electorate. His responses have always been received the next business day after I email him.
I asked Mr Macfarlane some follow up questions and he was kind enough to reply to me.
WHEN you send a Government department an email or a letter relating to
a piece of legislation they’re trying to pass that you wish to comment
on, you’d generally expect either a response noting your input, or no
response at all.
What you don’t expect is to be referred to email your local MP of whom is
a member of the Opposition, and holds a Shadow portfolio in no way
related to the issue at hand.
The response I got from the local MP was even sadder.
I had the chance to do a follow up interview with Mark Newton of Internode regarding the Australian Internet filtering proposition put forward by the Federal Government.
In the Interview Mark and Tech Wired Australia discuss what has happened in the past few weeks since we talked, including the expression of interest of which was released a couple of days ago.
Mark finds that the expression of interest is of very poor standard and seems like a rush job by the Government.
Give the interview a listen, and keep writing to the Government.
Don’t forget you can subscribe in iTunes here or our feed here:
THIS afternoon the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy officially released a wide net expression of interest for a trial phase of ISP level filtering.
According to publicly available documents that have been released by the Department…
“Limited funding is available for ISPs participating in the Pilot”
What exactly does this mean? Read more
