Australian ISPs hesitant to join government filtering initiative

Last year, the Australian Federal Government and internet service providers Telstra, Optus and Primus launched a “voluntary filtering initiative” as a public-private measure to combat illegal activities online. The government set up a Refused Classification category of content, which the government's wider mandatory filter project is slated to block. The internet service provider's (ISP) filter will only block sites with child pornography instead of those with illegal content in general.

Despite making this commitment, Techdirt reported that a Primus representative has recently raised doubts concerning this commitment. "At this stage iPrimus have no current plans to impose the voluntary filter on 1 July, only Telstra and Optus have announced they will," said the Primus employee -who remains unidentified. "Yes, some media is reporting this, but they would be going on the fact we were part of the original three that were discussing it; however, iPrimus have made no official announcements to date or made a decision that we will be turning it on along with Telstra and Optus."

On Saturday, Telstra officially revealed it will cooperate with the voluntary filter project, although not entirely according to the original plan to block a list of sites supplied by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Telstra said that it is now planning to block a list provided by international policing body, Interpol. Optus is being asked for comment on its approach.

As the voluntary filtering regime comes closer to reality in Australia, with the ISPs planning to implement the system over the next few months, online rights campaigners have again raised their voices in opposition to the idea.

Last week, global digital rights lobby group, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, published a statement strongly opposing the voluntary filter, stating the plan lacked transparency in the selection of the internet addresses to be blocked, and a lack of accountability from regulatory bodies creating the blacklists. The Office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said that the final details of the voluntary filter are still being worked through with ISPs.

Meanwhile, Primus and Telstra seem to have second thoughts on joining the voluntary filtering initiative as agreed.

Sources: Techdirt, ZDnet