OMG! BLACKOUT!

By , Published January 25, 2010

OMG! Ubuntu! is taking part in this weeks 'Blackout' campaign in protest at Australia’s proposed Internet Censorship bill.

The Internet is one of the most valuable, innovative and sacred tools available today. It has changed our lives, our economies and our method of communication forever. It rocks!

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For one Government to control what and how citizens access it, under the guise of 'protecting them from danger', is misguided and leaves the doorway for potential political manipulation of the masses wide-open.

I urge all Australian readers to visit http://www.internetblackout.com.au/ to find out what they can do to stop their country joining an elite club whose current memberships consists of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Hmm – great people to be sharing ideological policies on free-speech with!

Keep the internet awesome €“ keep it free!

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • C.

    We have the same problem in Italy thanks to Silvio Berlusconi…:(

  • Anonymous

    The UK will be next. With us being such a police state and the general population not giving a flying rats ass about their privacy, nobody will batter an eye lid when they restrict our internet freedoms. It’s a shame that the people who write these laws know nothing about the subject.

    Is there some kind of petition in Australia that the international community can sign?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I’d imagine Lord Mandelson is watching Oz with a very keen eye. Not only does he want the right to disconnect people from the internet without any need for evidence, not only does he want the power to ‘block’ sites without any due course; i’d imagine a nice dose of Internet Censorship is right up his street.

      • Anonymous

        Argh he’s the most evil scumbag there is! I thought Jackie Smith was bad : It can’t be a coincidence he looks like Hitler can it?!

        Apparently, a lot of ministers have snubbed the idea about Mandelson creating laws as he’s sees fit, so hopefully it will never make it past the house of lords.

    • http://twitter.com/WolfHook Paul

      “By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction”

      http://ow.ly/10hts

  • mike

    I would love to throw in “haha, America is great, the land of freedom”……but we all know that’s not really all that true either

    be happy guys, at least you don’t live in the only developed nation on earth without healthcare for the masses. if we get sick really bad just once (even with insurance) there goes our entire life savings.

    I do agree though, internet censorship = fascism. fascists should be hanged in public squares. we have fascists here in the states too, they’re called republicans :)

    • Anonymous

      I’ll never understand those people that are against universal healthcare. They obviously don’t give a shit about their fellow countrymen, something which I would have thought is anti-American. Republicans just seem like backwards people that are moving further and further away from reality.

      People need to get over the mass fear of socialism, it’s not *that* bad in small quantities.

      • Martini1179

        Here, here!

        I agree with everything you said, which is almost unheard of for me because I hold unpopular political opinions.

        I think that we ought to all work together for common goals to benefit the common good. The Republican Party in the U.S. is a strange beast because on the one hand it espouses cold, capitalistic individualism (which is anti-Christian in nature, and yet a large part of the Party’s base is evangelical Christian) and opt to maintain the status quo, and yet somehow reserve the right to complain about ANYTHING politically. If you vote to keep things the way they are, you lose your right to complain about those same things when they become inconvenient to you.

      • Yfrwlf

        America is socialist, the police, fire protection, and educational institutions are paid for with tax money. The big insurance and health care companies that monopolize and control access to those things are the ones crapping their pants at the idea of socialized health care and are trying to make sure they will still be able to buy their mansions and rolls royces after the current reform happens. That is why they are writing the reform themselves behind closed doors. (see the “C-span in, big insurance out” protests) America is not a democracy, it’s the United Corporations of America.

  • Yi Sun-sin

    We had a simillar campaign here in France. I guess here the blackout did nothing, but contacting a MP is IMHO a much more effective measure.
    Same old shitty arguments. People just go crazy when one speaks about pedophilia (though it seems they don’t give a fuck about it as long as it happens in Africa, and involve only Africans.) This gives the government a perfect excuse to block any annoying website, but this won’t save any children, and only make real pedophiles harder to find and to bust !

    • Yfrwlf

      Of course the problem is if you start banning sites which are promoting things which you feel are definitely hateful/destructive/whatever, then of course where does it end, will always be the problem. Currently only the very extreme sites are gone after, sites which actually “carry out” what they promote, but of course promotion can easily be just as bad since doing it becomes a very small step past that. You could allow them all to exist no matter what, claiming it is “just information”, but then you’re helping individuals get together who are after the same hateful things. There is currently a lot of that on the net sadly.

      I think I would have to vote in favor of having things which are “obviously” hateful or mean and thus wrong be blocked, as I cannot say that a society which becomes OK with being surrounded by horrible content would be a good society to live in.

      For example, here in the U.S., the so-called skinhead/white militia “movements” has really taken off thanks in part to Obama being elected and to the Internet. Not that it’s possible to ever completely prevent everyone from being stupid of course, and everyone has to make their own choices, but I don’t think promoting hatred against someone because of their color or ancestry is something which should be promoted, and something which is not allowed in the U.K..

      • Yi Sun-sin

        First, what you are calling skinhead is actually bonehead. Do you want to see a real skinhead ? Here you go : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcEhAIx1OB4&feature=related .
        Second, I think that here, in France, we have much more laws restraining free speech than you do in the US, mainly against people that deny the Holocaust. Therefore, even if we don’t block websites, we can still charge any French resident publishing this kind of material. Therefore, I don’t actually see the point of blocking those websites…
        We don’t live in a society «which becomes OK with being surrounded by horrible content», there is no such stuff on the newspaper, nor on TV, etc. It’s only on the Internet, because of an obvious reason : the Internet is worldwide…

        • Yfrwlf

          True, for you the issue is the worldwide Internet, but like you say here we have more freedoms which means more hate exists and is allowed to exist on the Internet here in the U.S. so for us it can be an issue. Where your freedom ends and someone else’s begins will forever be a challenging problem but at least there’s a general consensus that certain things are so obviously hateful/mean that they have no place anywhere.

  • Anonymous

    You can also add a twibbon to your twitter to support this here: http://bit.ly/6u7Uxy

  • Andrew

    Pointless

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZLJMHDWPLQPMT2LJWXMOWFATVI For

    Pro: British is careful about their government’s possible censorship plan. :-)
    Con: Hilary Clinton criticizes Chinese government’s internet censorship; Google tries to change other country’s existing policy by threatening to quit the market.

    Why: 1. Do most Chinese internet surfers really hate their government’s policy? – Answer is NO.
    2. Then, why do Clinton and Google think they are trying to help those Chinese internet users as if they did not have freedom? – Answer is they think they are “Rambo” fighting communists.
    3. Can Chinese criticize the government freely online? – Answer is YES, but NOT 100%. Actually the government encourages the internet supervising by publicity. Some corruption cases in China were even disclosed firstly in internet. The content filtered out is mostly porno, political scandal, articles encouraging separatism in west provinces and emotional posts which may invoke riot (as it is still a developing country with a lot of society conflicts)
    4. Let the people in a country handle their own politics. Nobody can say he/she is smarter than anybody else. H.Clinton as well. G.W.Bush told people in Iraq, we came to “free” you with a gift called “democracy”. However, they got hunger and death. Now, Obama and Clinton told Chinese people, we will help you to get “internet freedom”… … Who is responsible for any bad result? Neither Clinton, nor Google, the government there have to take all the responsibilities.
    5. Google as a global company has the powerful influence than any traditional media today. If it could force a big country like China change its policy by business threatening, what else could the US government not yet do on the earth? Sadly to say, I was a Google fan, but not any more.

    Why I comment on this? Because I love Ubuntu, I do not want to see my favourite open source leading community to be a political evangelist (or in fact tool), like Google.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      This is nothing to do with Google or China. China is a totally different issue that requires a proper understanding of how China works in-order to comment properly (which a lot of people fail to realise, they just assume you can slap our version of free-market democracy on to them and everything will be fine; it won’t) but that’s not what the Australian censorship plan is about.This issue is about taking away the freedom and free-speech of the Australian people. Which is flat out wrong.

    • Anonymous

      As an Australian, I can assure you that these are very different issues.

      1. Most Australians oppose the policy, including most ISPs.
      2. Attempting to force an ideaology on a nation is very different from assisting in a protest that is important to the people of that nation.
      3. This does not relate to the situation in Australia, although a leaked version of an early blacklist in March included, along with child porn, sites about safe drug use, euthenasia, and a safe space for queer teens. This filter is looking very much like it will try to silence those who oppose the government on controversial issues (we’re currently struggling for same-sex marriage in this country, with the federal government strongly opposed).
      4. Again, there’s a difference between forcing your ideas on someone and helping them out. Most Australians oppose this, and many sites within Australia participated in the blackout. We appreciate and welcome international support.
      5. Not relevant to this situation. We’re talking about support here, not force.

      Ubuntu stands for freedom. Currently, the Australian government is looking to stifle freedom in this country against the wishes of its people. I would love to see the Ubuntu community get involved, and am very pleased to see this site participating in the blackout.

  • http://ndrw.me AndrewNoNumbers

    Perfect, it’s a koala!

  • http://kroulee.com Brandon Sheppard

    Thanks for the support d0od! I’m from Australia, and haven’t been able to find a single person who actually supports this censorship.

  • Anonymous

    i’m truly glad to be Canadian when i see things like this, I mean how does it stop child porn?

    • Anonymous

      It just makes them harder to catch, and pisses off 99.9% of the innocent.

    • Anonymous

      It doesn’t. It will block a lot of child porn sites, along with a lot of sites the government just doesn’t like based on a leaked version of the early blacklist (see my comment above).

      It will not block P2P traffic. There is no way this can regulate child porn on those channels, and it is a static list, so mirrors and new sites must be discovered and explicitly blocked (and let’s face it, the Internet is capable of producing new mirrors faster than we’re capable of discovering them).

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZLJMHDWPLQPMT2LJWXMOWFATVI For

    It’s good we have strict internet censorship against Nazis speech here in Germany.

    • Yi Sun-sin

      Why so ? I mean, I think that your history courses, your movies (like Die Welle), etc, are doing a much better work to fight against neo-nazism than any internet censorship will ever do.

  • Anonymous

    Good to see that the international comunity has concerns of this too

  • Martini1179

    I’m glad that this blog is taking a political stand against internet censorship in Australia, but I think that it should also take a stand on a much bigger issue that has the potential to impact the entire world.

    Last week the conservative U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that will allow American corporations to invest unlimited money in political advertising. Previously, there were checks and limits on this sort of thing, but now every election can be flooded with political ads paid for by faceless, amoral, immortal, artificial persons that cannot be incarcerated and are all but immune from prosecution.

    Essentially, corporations have now become the kingmakers of the American political system. If they’re able to elect THEIR candidates, they literally have unlimited control of the United States government! How does this impact the entire world? Well, you know how the U.S. likes to play World Police and meddle in everyone’s business? Yeah. The military industrial complex (ie. the war manufacturing corporations) has the same rights too. Profits low at Lockheed Martin? Install a hawkish president and congress and start a “conflict.”

    And now, here’s the BAD news… ;)

    Right now there doesn’t seem to be any limits on which corporations can spend unlimited cash to influence politics. Foreign corporations would likely be subject to the same non-restrictions, so, for example, Chinese corporations might be able to spend money on American political ads too.

    The Supreme Court has killed American democracy. If this continues for more than a year or so, America will begin its short march towards fascism.

    [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission]

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Politics everywhere is getting scary – what with ACTA, the “terrorist-ising” of political groups your lobbies are pressuring you to do, censorship being proposed/introduced in countries you NEVER would have thought possible so the issue you point out really doesn’t shock me anymore. Which is scary in itself.I guess i’m still somewhat moderately lucky (for now) here inside the EU bubble. Despite the negative painting of it, the way it works can be super effective at beating down these types of proposals and protecting citizens from corporations extending tentacles (for want of a better expression, and despite the EU essentially being a corporation itself).As for highlighting such issues on this blog well, who knows. I’ve held off posting my “Why ACTA will kill LInux” post for a while simply because this is supposed to be a blog about frivolous fun regarding docks and wallpapers etc. I don’t want to shove my political opinion in peoples’ faces when they’re not looking for it. Obviously i chose to mention the blackout campaign – but with a koala as the mascot… there’s a tenuous link at worst! (I’ve also highlighted the plight of Koala’s in Australia before as well).I’m really glad i’m European though, and i don’t mean that out of disrespect to Americans but our system – however flawed we think it over here – works much better in terms of preserving liberties. (ACTA will have a battle with the European Parliament if passed as it will contradict European Law)

      • Martini1179

        I realize that this is an Ubuntu blog and that politics rarely fit the format, and I understand the reluctance against getting too political. I wasn’t seriously suggesting that you take a position on the Supreme Court decision, I was just trying to add to the discussion, and venting a little. Although if you can write about one political problem, you can write about another. And it actually is relevant, in that it gives American ISPs and wireless carriers unlimited power to influence things such as net neutrality, bloggers’ rights, and internet censorship, which reminds me — the U.S. government just blocked Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan and Cuba from accessing Sourceforge.

        [ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/01/25/sourceforge-blocks-iran-north-korea-syria-sudan-and-cuba/ ]

  • bilal

    Well, I am living in Saudi Arabia, and I face no major problem with using the internet. The minor issues are that tinyurl.com and YouSendIt.com are blocked.

  • Anonymous

    This is my favourite blog of all time. As an Australian, I thank you.

    I can assure you that this filtering scheme is not about child porn. It’s completely inadequate for stopping the dissemination of child porn, and the leaked list back in March shows its true intention.

    Among the sites blocked were a site arguing for euthenasia, a site with instructions for safe drug use, and one describing how to carry out certain crimes (I don’t know which). Look beyond those which support positions the government is against, and you have several BDSM and fetish sites, as well as a safe space for queer teens.

    That last site is terrifying. Consider how many queer teens commit suicide, because they feel they’re somehow defective or they can’t handle the bullying. I cannot stress how important a support network can be during one’s discovery, and not everyone can find that in real life.

  • http://www.technetium.org/ Julianna Nelson

    Wow … this is a great blog! Pretty informative as well! That has really helped me a lot in learning some of this stuff that I wasn’t familiar with.

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  • http://wakoopa.com/xfact XFACT

    I agree mate! Internet is sacred.

  • Anonymous

    I cannot stress how important a support network can be during one’s discovery, and not everyone can find that in real life.

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