Australia put its disputed Internet filter plan on hold for up to a year yesterday to allow for an independent review of what content would be banned, in a move to mute controversy ahead of elections.
Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the introduction of the “Clean Feed” filter would be delayed for consultations over what material should come under the initiative, which is to be administered by service providers.
“Some sections of the community have expressed concern about whether the range of material included in the Refused Classification [RC] category, under the National Classification Scheme, correctly reflects current community standards,” Conroy said in a statement. “In order to address these concerns, the government will recommend a review ... be conducted at the earliest opportunity. The review would examine the current scope of the existing RC classification and whether it adequately reflects community standards.”
Conroy said the mandatory filter would not be imposed until completion of the review, which could take up to a year, buying the government a reprieve as it prepares to call an election in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, he said Australia’s three largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had agreed to voluntarily block a government-compiled list of child abuse Web pages, which he described as featuring “abhorrent” content.
Canberra’s ambitious plan to block access to sites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse has drawn criticism from global giants, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
User advocates, the pornography industry and others have likened Australia’s proposed system to official firewalls operating in repressive regimes, such as China and Iran.
Google has led criticism of Conroy’s plan, with warnings it could damage the nation’s reputation as a liberal democracy and set a dangerous global precedent.
The minister countered by accusing the Web giant of hypocrisy, saying it had committed the “single greatest breach in the history of privacy” by collecting private wireless data while taking pictures for its Street View map service.
In May, Google acknowledged it had mistakenly collected fragments of data over public wireless networks in more than 30 countries while it was taking pictures of neighborhoods for the Street View feature.
Yesterday, Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis said her investigation was complete and she had determined Google breached the nation’s Privacy Act.
“Collecting personal information in these circumstances is a very serious matter,” Curtis said in a statement. “Australians should reasonably expect that private communications remain private.”
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