Internet filter protesters aim for Canberra
THE group responsible for last weekend's protests against the internet filtering scheme plans to take its fight to Canberra.
The rallies were the first in a series of demonstrations organised by anti-censorship group Digital Liberty Coalition.
While organisers described the weekend rallies held in all Australia's capital cities as "playful", the Canberra actions would be more volatile.
DLC estimates that 2500 people in total attended the nationwide protests.
LC spokesman, Jeremiah Hutchinson called the demonstrations a "phenomenal success" and said the group now planned to hold anti-filter demonstrations once a month until March, when it would promote a national protest in Canberra called March in March.
"We're focusing on a number of guerrilla marketing campaigns and old school activism to attract a lot more public awareness over the Australia Day long weekend," he said.
"We will be deploying a number of approaches, such as posting fliers and engaging with people through social networking in the lead-up to our march on Canberra in March. We are also toying with the idea of another national protest in February."
Mr Hutchinson is hoping at least 2000 people will participate in the march to Canberra. "It will be a heavier protest environment than the weekend's which was a more playful and static event. In Canberra there will be much more chanting and a lot louder protesting from a lot more people."
Under the Government's proposed filtering plan, all Australians will be served a "clean" internet feed.
This will be achieved by blocking any websites that find themselves on a blacklist compiled by the communications watchdog.
A secondary filter to block material inappropriate for children also will be introduced, but users will be able to opt-out of this system by lodging a request with their internet service provider.
Opponents to the plan, such as the DLC, say the filter will slow internet connection speeds and accidentally block access to a large number of legitimate websites.
Mr Hutchinson also said it was possible for unscrupulous users to bypass the Government's proposed filter in less than three seconds to gain access to illegal material.
"This filter will only affect three access ports, so the simplest way to bypass it is to configure your modem settings and alter what ports you're accessing the internet from. Alternatively, if you're not tech savvy then all you have to do is download a program called Tor, which is a program designed to help Chinese and Iranian residents get around their filters. It's that simple."
Chief executive of child protection group Child Wise, Bernadette McMenamin, said most of the criticisms levelled at the internet filter scheme were founded on misinformation.
"It's disturbing that people are getting hysterical about all the misinformation that is being spread about the internet filter," Ms McMenamin said.
"Instead of hearing hysteria from the minority we need to hear from the Government and exactly what it intends to ban."
Ms McMenamin was equally critical of the past weekend's protests and the DLC's plans for future action.
"Let the 300 people march on Canberra because it looks pathetic," he said. "It looks pathetic and shameful because most of these people are not fully aware of the facts and secondly, those who are aware are, in effect, advocating child pornography."
