SYDNEY — Telstra, one of Australia’s largest Internet service providers, is rethinking its plan to voluntarily filter the web due to fear of reprisals from hack groups like Anonymous and LulzSec.
The Australian government initially introduced legislation that would create web filters to block child pornography sites from entering Australian homes. The plan was criticized as lacking transparency, accountability and an appeals process.
Electronic Frontiers Australia criticized the government censorship when Australians could set up their own personal filters to protect children from such content.
EFA also argued that web filters would be expensive and ineffective and that the official blacklist would be secret and possessed by the government.
The EFA and majority of Australians don’t deny that child pornography on the Internet is a problem, but they reject the idea that government censorship is the solution.
Since 2008, Australia has introduced legislation to censor the Internet. In 2009, Anonymous struck back with “Operation Titstorm.”
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