A church leader wrote (December 2008):

“Getup” (an ISP lobby group) has launched an online petition opposing the filtering (and supporting the porn industry and some in the IT industry who want to scuttle the government’s plans to clean up the internet).

Nathan responded:

For what it is worth, I reckon [this] email here is misleading. Getup is not an ISP lobby group, and they are not supporting the porn industry. They lobby on a wide range of social issues, and their campaigns have often been supported by many in our churches. Their oppositions to this filtering proposal is not because they want to allow more porn, but because they believe that it involves a very clumsy mechanism and will have more detrimental side- effects than positive benefits for the internet. I’m no expert, but Getup appear to me to know more about what they are talking about here than [ ] does. I’ve pasted their email on the subject below so others can weigh up the opposing views.

Peace and hope,

Nathan

*****

Imagine a government proposing an internet censorship system that went further than any other democracy – one that made the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally blocked up to one in 12 legitimate sites, and missed the vast majority of inappropriate content.

This is not China, Saudi Arabia or Iran – this is the vision of Senator Stephen Conroy for Australia. Testing has already begun. The community must now move to stop this plan. Click here to save the net:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

The system that Senator Conroy wants is a mandatory filter of all internet traffic, with the government of the day able to add any unwanted site to a secret blacklist. Already, the wrangling has begun for the inclusion of material relating to anorexia, euthanasia and gambling. It isn’t difficult to see the scheme is open to abuse.

Even when it comes to preventing child p-rnography, the filter will not prevent peer-to-peer sharing and is very simple to sidestep. The protection of our children is vitally important – that’s why we can’t afford to waste funds on this deeply flawed system. We should be concentrating on solutions that are more effective and won’t undermine our digital economy or our democratic freedoms.

This must rank as one of the most ill-thought decisions of the Rudd Government’s first year in power. We need to act now to tell big brother the mandatory internet filter is incompatible with the principles of a modern democracy and modern economy:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

Our government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Take action to save the net today.

Thanks for being a part of the solution, The GetUp team

PS – The proposed scheme will pass all internet traffic through a government filter – it’s like asking Australia Post to filter every letter sent in Australia. Click here to save the net.

__________________________

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to http://www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here.

Authorised by Simon Sheikh, Level 2, 294 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000

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Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher

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