Australia: leading the western world in web censorship.

The Angry Exile, Upside Down Correspondent

'There's nothing special about the internet,' Aussies are being told by Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy, who for some time has been promoting the idea that Australia should join nations like China, Iran and North Korea in being able to see what citizens and residents can and can't look at online. 'This argument that the internet is some mystical creation that no laws should apply to, that is a recipe for anarchy and the wild west,' says Senator Conroy, for whom child porn and other 'Restricted Classification' material are the reasons Australia needs a filter. Opponents have repeatedly pointed out that those who want to gain access to the RC material will bypass it - as Conroy himself appears to have admitted on at least one occasion - and that since the specific sites and pages being censored will be kept secret from the public the proposed filter could easily be abused by this or a future government to censor legitimate content that it dislikes. This might appeal to many governments of all hues, so perhaps should be filed under the heading of 'coming to a country near you soon'.