iiNet Quits Aussie Filtering Trial

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Had originally agreed to to “ridiculous” plan to “show just “how stupid it is,” but realized it couldn’t ingnore the fact that is was no longer about child pornography, but a “much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as "unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes.”

iiNet, Australia’s largest ISP, has decided to quit its participation in Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s plans to test out a proposed Internet filtering scheme after tiring of constant changes in filtering policy, confused explanations of the purpose of the trial, and a recent leak of the website “blacklist.”

“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,” says Mr. Malone.

iiNet’s Managing Director, Michael Malone, says they only agreed to participate in the trial to demonstrate that the policy was fundamentally flawed, a waste of taxpayers’ money and would not work.

“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,” said iiNet managing director Michael Malone. ““Everyone is repulsed by, and opposed to, child pornography but this trial and policy is not the solution or even about that. In reality, the vast majority of online child pornography activity does not appear on public websites but is distributed over peer-to-peer networks which are not and cannot be captured by this trial or policy.”

Mr Malone said the Government should re-think its approach and urgently needs to make clear what its intentions are in respect of internet censorship, this lack of communication from government and bureaucracy is rightly seen as underhand and unsavory and is now attracting international dismay as well as Australian disgust.

Several Senators have aid they wanted the filters broadened to include hard-core porn, gambling, and file-sharing sites. Sure enough, a leak of the blacklisted sites includes all three, “full tilt poker” and “torrent five” among the latter two.

iiNet’s refusal to test out the scheme, even if only to prove to Senator Conroy how “stupid it is,” is sure to deal a heavy blow to the proposal which is still under heavy criticism for its lack of a previously promised promised opt out mechanism

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