Take Action

There are a number of ways you can voice your concern on the mandatory internet filter.

Make a submission to the Australian Government

Make a submission on measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification material:

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has requested submissions from interested parties. The links below will take you to the dbcde.gova.au wesbite

Submissions to the review are invited by close of business on Friday 12 February 2010. Before making a submission, please ensure you have read the consultation paper and also the Guidelines for submissions, which include important information about confidentiality and privacy.

The preferred method for the receipt of submissions is via the online submission form.

Twitter and Facebook

Try and communicate to you friends about the issues of censorship that is not properly thought out. Where possible change using the #nocleanfeed hash tag on twitter to #openinternet. Get an openinternet avatar.

Further reading on the change in thinking from #nocleanfeed to #openinternet.

Create a Facebook group or join one that promotes an open internet free of censorship in Australia. Tell your frinds to visit this website and read about the issues.

Write Letters

We ask everyone to download or write a letter to your local MP stating your objection. This is still the most effective way to get your voice heard. Your local MP can be found here by entering your postcode into the Open Australia website.

Tips for Writing Effective Letters

Here is really useful blogpost on writing to ministers

Here are some tips from professional lobbyists in writing a letter to your minister.

Stick to facts
Try not to be emotive in your argument
Try and back up all claims with studies and evidence.

Some Facts & Figures

Facts you might want to include if you write your own letter:

It IS important to protect our youth. But not with a filter.

A quote from the Government:

“Labor considers that, just as we teach Australian children about the risks of drink driving, we must also teach them how to be responsible cyber-citizens and about the importance of cyber-safety. ” From http://www.alp.org.au/download/now/labors_plan_for_cyber_safety.pdf

Agreed, but filtering the Internet is like having a breath testing unit (that isn’t fool proof) on everyone’s street, and everyone has to be tested before they can drive up their own driveway.

2. It will filter innocent content, so EVERYONE won’t be able to reach some innocent material.

It’s currently impossible to automatically block all material that is deemed “inappropriate,” while allowing all “innocuous” material.

The Government did tests in June 2008 of some filtering technology. It should point out that the test was only simulating HTML, and images like GIF and JPEG. Not P2P, chats, etc. It was not tested in a real world situation.

The tests showed:

An average success of 92% on content deemed “inappropriate.”
An average failure of 4%, where content was “innocuous” was blocked.

3. Filtering WILL slow the Internet down for EVERYONE.

Almost all of the technology they tested effected performance, even when NOT filtering. One actually improved performance when NOT filtering, when compared to the normal network, but that was deemed an anomaly.

One of the technologies tested only slowed down the speed of the network by 2% when filtering. But on average the decrease in speed was 42% across all the technologies they tested.

4. It infringes EVERYONES freedom of speech.

The two tiered approach the Government says they are planning to implement, will not allow opting out for some of the content they deem inappropriate. So some content will be filtered for everyone, and you cannot opt-out.

5. It will cost EVERYONE more.

$, time, etc.
Individuals, business, ISPs.

What Else Can You Do?

Ring your local MP and Senator Conroy’s office. All phone calls to Conroy are logged - don’t be shy!
Blog about the issue.
Contact your ISP and let them know that you oppose any mandatory filter on your internet connection.
Make a protest avatar and put it across your social networks - this may not be seen by any Ministers, but it does help raise awareness on the issue. Don’t assume that everyone knows about it.
tweet with the #openinternet hash tag
Get a Twibbon for your Twitter Avatar

Online Petitions

You can sign one of the online petitions - but be aware that these are not officially accepted by parliament and while it will show the wave of objection to this proposal, we urge you to do more.