Decius wrote:
Hackers identifying themselves as “Anonymous” launched a denial-of-service attack Wednesday against a web site for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to protest a government proposal to filter internet content, according to the Australian Associated Press.
This seems like a stupid stunt, but then again, the news reports caused me to notice the issue. I'm dismayed that the UK has allowed this kind of filtering scheme to be deployed with hardly a whimper of protest, at least as far as I heard over here. That success has emboldened censors in numerous western countries who want to deploy similar systems. I have the impression that the filter list that is running in the UK is fairly carefully managed such that most Internet users don't know its there. The only controversy that I've heard of was over that Scorpions album, which is obviously an edge case. The Australian filter list was leaked, and reports seem to indicate that it contains material that should not have been listed. Making matters worse, the Australian government has tried to censor the list.
I don't think goverments should filter the internet. If they insist, there is something to be said for doing it transparently.
I'm not clear about what you are referring to when you say filtering has been deployed in the UK. If you mean the recent Mandelson plan -- that remains talk at the moment -- if you mean the throttling of p2p traffic by ISPs -- are you saying that AT&T etc doesn't as a routine part of traffic management at peak times? I am not aware of the UK government itself doing any filtering (GCHQ aside) although plans for an uber database have been floated but with that there is a certain amount of scaremongering and tabloid journalism involved.
You say filtering which implies there is a blockage. I am not aware that I am blocked or censored in the UK from any global site. It would seem I need educating. Let's run some tests.
