
Australia to censor AppStore etc.? - astrec
http://www.zdnet.com.au/minister-sits-on-mobile-app-censorship-339302426.htm
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oscardelben
There has been a lot of censorship lately in Australia, I wouldn't be
surprised if they do this too.

Disclaimer: I'm from Italy and my country is not that better.

~~~
jstevens85
Although that may appear to be the case, the reality is that censorship has
remain unchanged in Australia for a quite a long time.

If you're referring to video game censorship, that's not a recent problem, but
something that's existed for a couple of decades now.

If you're talking about the internet filter, that's just the pet project of
the Minister for Communications. He has yet to receive the support of the
Government to introduce the legislation into parliament, so it'll be
interesting to see what happens over the next six months or so (if he manages
to introduce legislation into parliament, and if he does, how the opposing
parties will react).

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nopassrecover
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_australi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_australia)
reports that the Government has been supporting and implementing degrees of
Internet censorship for some time now. While the latest effort by Conroy has
yet to get Government support it is hard to imagine the opposition Liberal
Party (the conservative party - they have attempted to introduce the same
thing in the past) opposing it.

~~~
jstevens85
>it is hard to imagine the opposition Liberal Party ... opposing it.

My understanding is that they opposed ISP level filtering while in government.

Here are some comments made by Senior Opposition Frontbencher Joe Hockey a few
days ago:

“What we have in the government’s Internet filtering proposals is a scheme
that is likely to be unworkable in practice. But more perniciously it is a
scheme that will create the infrastructure for government censorship on a
broader scale,” said Hockey in a wide-ranging speech on freedom to the Grattan
Institute last night.

Hockey said that “of course” people wanted to stop unlawful material being
viewed on the internet, and that there were appropriate protections that are
in place for that. “But I have personal responsibility as a parent,” he added.
“If I want to stop my children from viewing other material that I feel is
inappropriate then that is my responsibility to do something about it – not
that of the government.”

“Protecting liberty is about protecting freedoms against both known and future
threats. Some may argue that we can surely trust a democratically-elected
government in Australia to never try to introduce more wide-spread censorship.
I am not so sure!”

[http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-
news/strategy/37527-hockey...](http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-
news/strategy/37527-hockey-slams-unworkable-internet-filter)

Nick Minchin, the former Opposition Communications Minister, was also strongly
against the Internet filter. Here's an opinion piece he wrote for the SMH.

[http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/big-brother-filter-
plan-i...](http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/big-brother-filter-plan-insults-
parents/2009/01/21/1232471392459.html?page=fullpage)

~~~
cturner

        My understanding is that they opposed ISP level
        filtering while in government.
    

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Coonan#Internet_Filtering>

That government had some crazy ideas in the late 90s, but between 2000 and
loss of government in 2007 they encouraged parental supervision through opt-in
filtering software, and opposed ISP-level filtering.

    
    
        Nick Minchin, the former Opposition Communications Minister
    

Minchin wasn't communications minister in government, but became shadow
communications minister in opposition. This doesn't detract from the link you
sent.

~~~
nopassrecover
I see your point but Minchin has retired and the opposition that the Libs have
isn't ideological - it's largely "it won't work". My concern is that their
opposition is simply because "we have to oppose them".

Hockey's comments are refreshing but my experience is that he plays
populist/party-line politics so it has little bearing on how he would actually
vote at the time.

I guess the upcoming election will probably decide how this plays down anyway.

------
gloob
If it weren't for the fact that virtually all apps are available from (and
only from) a single centralized location, you'd think that actually doing this
would be non-trivial.

