Sylverin Says...
Dear readers, this saddens me: ISP filtering gains momentum.
We stand on the brink of weblivion.
Our precious web content is that little bit closer to becoming just a memory. I understand why the government is doing this though. Pedophiles. Terrorists. Credit card fraudsters and scammers. The small minority who ruin the internet for the rest of us. They have brought it down upon our heads.
Are you, dear reader, going to stand for this? This act of restriction? For that is what it is, a decision by the people in power to control and limit what we see, hear and think.
This is not quite the Matrix, nor V for Vendetta, nor Communism, but you get the picture. Restricting our view is one step towards a totalitarian state.
I am also concerned that the government will foist the cost of this content filtering onto the taxpayer. I steadfastly refuse to pay for a service I will never need to use. It's preposterous to think that Australians should pay for something that firstly, should already be self regulated, and secondly, is not guaranteed to prevent 100% of the illegal material getting through.
I consider this to be two, actually three things: an invasion of my right to freedom of information, an invasion of my right to choose whether I want to be filtered and an invasion of my right to privacy. I use the internet responsibly, so I do not see why I should suffer the minority's punishment.
And where does it end? I mean, where will the government draw the line for content filtering? This is exactly like the Wikipedia scandal where it was found that government agencies were illegally editing the site with the specific aim of biasing the information. Today, the government may be filtering child porn, but tomorrow? Who knows. But there will be trouble if I wake up one morning to find my favourite web comics blocked.
Sylverin
P.S. If you don't want to see the nastys - close your web browser!
