FC: Electronic Frontiers Australia on Net-censorship efforts

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: Irene Graham <exec () efa org au>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: EFA review/analysis of C'th Net censorship regime
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 13:42:26 +1000

Declan

Below message has been distributed to a number of Australian mailing lists.
Info below FYI, and feel free to post part or all to politech if you wish.

Regards
Irene
======

When releasing the fourth report on the government's Internet censorship
regime on 21 August 2002, the Minister for Communications Senator Richard
Alston proclaimed: "Internet safety for Australians continues to grow".

EFA has conducted a comprehensive analysis of Government reports on the
regime, in light of the Minister's admissions to the Senate that official
reports contain statistical errors exaggerating the alleged effectiveness
of the scheme, and reviewed the overall operation and effectiveness of the
scheme. We conclude there is no evidence or indication to support the
Minister's claim that the Internet has been made safer. Our review and
findings are contained in:

EFA submission to the DCITA review of the operation of the C'th Internet
censorship regime, 8 Nov 2002
http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm_bsa2002.html

(The Dept of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) is
currently conducting a review of the operation of the scheme, as required
by the legislation to be done before 1 Jan 2003.)

Short summary of EFA submission:

- The ABA spent 83% of its Internet censorship efforts investigating
content on overseas-hosted websites over which it has no control.

- Approximately half of the prohibited items designated as hosted in
Australia were found in world-wide Usenet newsgroups, most likely
originated outside Australia, and were not taken down from the Internet.

- The ABA's refusal to provide the URLs or titles of taken-down
Australian-hosted web pages, on the ground that such information would
enable a person to access prohibited content on the Internet, indicates the
ABA believes such content has not been taken down from the Internet.

- Ministerial statements trumpeting the success of the scheme have been, by
the Minister's own admission, based on erroneous statistics.

- Misleading statements have been made by the government about the
proportion of prohibited content that is actual child pornography.

- The scheme exaggerates the outcomes by claiming newsgroup postings
removed from one Usenet newsgroup server as content that has been removed
from the Internet.

- The referral of prohibited content to scheduled filter vendors is not
followed up to ensure that the vendors add the content to their filter
blocklist.

- The application of film classification guidelines to static images and
text on the Internet is inappropriate and results in prohibition of content
online that is legally available in magazines offline.

- OFLC fees for classification, and review of a classification, of a web
page are exorbitant, costing approximately five times the fee for an entire
offline magazine.

- Online publishers have less rights in relation to review and appeal of
classification decisions than offline publishers.

- The effectiveness or otherwise of the complaints system would be clearer
if the outcome of investigations resulting from legislatively valid
complaints (i.e. from Australian residents), and information received from
other entities such as overseas hotlines, was reported on separately.

- No information has been made available by the government about successful
prosecutions, if any, resulting from the scheme.

- The estimated $2.7M annual cost of the scheme is difficult to justify
given the limited outcomes achieved.

- EFA recommends that Schedule 5 of the Broadcasting Services Act be
repealed and the costly and failed Internet regulatory apparatus be
dismantled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Irene Graham
Executive Director - Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (EFA)
EFA: <http://www.efa.org.au>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




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