The piddler is continuing on his campaign of misinformation and blatant lies about the filter. Anybody else would have gotten sick of being caught out so many times, but fortunately for Conroy, the media for the most part don’t really care so it’s only those of us who are informed about the Rabbit-Proof Firewall who seem to notice how pathetic and incompetent he is at anything other than backstabbing and weaseling. Continue reading →

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update, so I thought the best way to start would be by explaining a post a page or two back. The post in question is this one in regards to Australia’s Rabbit Proof Firewall.

Well, at the time I was under the impression the filter would either be on or off. The on setting being one designed to protect the children, off being no filtering what so ever. My biggest gripe was that I had just come from an argument with the people on OCAU about it, me saying this is all it would ever be and those saying it would be more need to dump the paranoia and to look at things in a more realistic sense, there’s no way the sky is falling and their claims/worries could be even remotely accurate.

I was wrong. They were right. I’m leaving my post for posterity as I’m not afraid to admit when I fail. In fact, they couldn’t have been more right. This internet filter is looking worse and worse by the day as more information comes out. It’s also coming out VERY slowly with Conroy not wanting to let anybody know what is really in the works.

For starters, the only reason we even have any information right now is due to a technician at a large ISP came forward in a forum and told the world what it is he was currently working on. If he hadn’t have done that, every man and his dog would still be completely in the dark in regards to it. Conroy has also been lying left right and centre about what is and isn’t happening. He lies about the tests, he lied when he said initially that it was only one filter (it’s now two filters, a kiddie one and an adult one), he lied about what the filters were (the adult one was originally just illegal material, now he’s added “other unwanted” to that).

It’s beyond a joke, and Conroy deserves to have his political career unceremoniously stripped from him. He’s abusing his position and those he’s supposed to represent. What he’s doing isn’t democratic, it’s unaustralian, and it’s just plain wrong.

For more information follow the below links.

Somebody Think of The Children – Discussing censorship and moral panic in Australia.
No Clean Feed – Stop Internet Censorship in Australia.
Censored – Add this image to your avatars/website images in protest.

I’ve just been having a debate with the folks over at OCAU. The topic was the Internet Censorship Bill being introduced to Australia shortly. The reason I was debating it? Because I could comprehend the number of people who seriously need to take off the tin foil hats, step outside and open their eyes to the real world. So many conspiracy theorists on there it wasn’t funny. People seeing what we are getting as being akin to the Great Firewall of China, or with 1984-esque ideas of what internet access in Australia will suddenly become.

If anything, we’ll have slightly slower internet speeds when going from one page to the next, and that’s about it. Hardware-wise it’s already easy enough for ISP’s to filter things out. This can be seen by the big net neutrality debates happening in America. If their ISP’s want it, surely they have the technology to cope with the overall affect it will have to the speed of browsing.

As for the 1984-esque ideas, it won’t be a complete government state. You won’t have someone peaking over your shoulder at everything you do as some have claimed. If anything it will be more like a sharknet. Stops the big and obvious nasties such as paedophilia sites, general and publicised porn or shock sites, but that’s about it. It won’t stop all the raw sewerage from the offshore pipelines, nor the jellyfish, and other crap in the ocean. That’ll still flow through easily.

Then there’s those going on about all the legitimate sites they want to access. Of course a shark net is going to catch the odd dolphin or other nice animal, but that’s a risk that must be taken with anything like this. It’s easy enough to opt out, and then you’re free from it until you change ISP’s or move and get a different account name. Whoop de doo. It won’t put you on any government watch lists or get you targeted by the RIAA/MPAA mafia.

I swear, every time I post on OCAU my IQ goes down a few points. Conspiracy theorists, clueless morons or people who are just abusive despite posting in a forum that was designed for people to get help on said subjects. I don’t know why I bother, that’s exactly why I left the ZStoner forums.