December 26, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Concerns have been raised about the scope of possible Internet censorship planned by the Australian Federal government, a number of sources reported recently. While the plans were assumed to target Internet traffic, the country’s Broadband Minister, Stephen Conroy, recently suggested on an official blog that the government was setting up a trial of technology that “filters” information sent “between computers”.
Discussing a move that appears to target issues related to peer-to-peer video and music file sharing over the Internet, Senator Conroy was reported as suggesting, "Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial".
The comments are found on a
government blog in a discussion entitled “Digital Economy Future Directions”. The blog was established to gather public input on the direction Australia should take as far as the “digital economy” is concerned. To date the blog has received numerous comments attacking the government’s filtering plans. According to some reports, live trials of the filtering technology Senator Conroy was discussing are currently taking place, but Internet Service Providers have been given little information about its application.
