Net censorship trials see the exit of iiNet

iiNet, the third biggest internet provider in Australia has said that it could not “reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility” and promptly left the internet censorship trials by the Government.

A leaked copy of the secret Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist of prohibited websites, of which the backbone of the Government’s censorship policy is formed was recently published by wikileaks, the anonymous whistleblower site and has led to the current move by iiNet.

The long list of websites that had been prohibited included a vast array of legal material such as porn sites for straight and gay, online poker sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, YouTube links and even sites like an animal carer, a Queensland Dentist and a consultancy for school canteens instead of the “illegal material” like child pornography it was expected to contain.

The sites that are contained on the blacklist for all Australians from the ACMA will be blocked under the Governments mandatory internet censorship plan, which a number of small ISPs are already trialing.

Michael Malone, the managing director for iiNet said “We are not able to reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility, our customer service objectives and our public position on censorship. It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes.”

78 year old retired nurse educator from Melbourne, Betty Peters said that the big brother attitude towards senior citizens in Australia had “outraged” her when she found out that her pro-euthanasia YouTube videos had been included on the blacklist.

Peters, who does voluntary work for Euthanasia organisation Exit International said “We do not need a 40-year-old senator like [Communications Minister] Stephen Conroy deciding for us what is good and bad. I am appalled that our free country has come to this.”