[AusNOG] conroy reaffirms commitment to filter

[Ben Stewart]

Dan,

On 1/07/10 11:14 AM, Daniel Hood wrote:
> If you want to stop this filter from coming through, we need mass
> awareness that this filter isn’t going to work.

Agreed. There needs to be a fair bit of noise made about this topic
where the public can hear it, rather than just in the technical
publications of the industry.

> This can easily be achieved by creating a bunch of videos / written /
> audio tutorials with something like “The 5 easy steps to beating the
> filter”. Just show people how to install TOR for firefox or such. If we
> can show that the filter is going to be ineffective to the general
> public then he’ll lose all footing.

On this point though, I respectfully disagree. Joe and Jane Citizen
aren't going to care about there being means to evade the internet
filter any more than they care about ways to get around the meatspace
classification system by purchasing items from Canberra.

Additionally, the public by and large are not going to be concerned that
rights are being infringed by the implementation of this filter - any
campaign to oppose the the filter will need to make the issue a
_personal_ one with each and every voter. Show that a topic relevant to
a large number of voters is going to be blocked by the filter. Show that
the government is questioning every voter's judgment by implementing
this filter.

I feel that the only means by which any headway can be made on the
anti-filtering front is to start playing the same games as Conroy et
al., and attach emotion to the argument - the government uses the child
porn angle; what angle do we as a profession and industry use? It is
difficult to use a double negative in this context - saying that a
filter will not prevent {terrorism, child porn, bullying} is going to be
ignored by the general public as 'too detailed, blah blah blah'. Simple,
emotional arguments work best.

Whilst I dislike that these sort of tactics are those most effective, we
have to remember that the filter is not a technical issue, but a
political issue, and must be treated like one.

We have not yet really had any simple, persuasive statements about the
filter that show in a non-technical manner why it is bad. This I think
is where some energy needs to be spent before getting the word out there.

Just my $0.02 + GST.

- Ben

-- 
Ben Stewart <mailto:ausnog at tucuxi.org>