I was on a plane when the government’s partial about-face on Internet censorship and filtering got announced. But a few hours delay absorbing the news makes the essential fact — that there’s no real change in policy — even clearer.
Lifehacker readers have been opposed to the filter right from the start, so the news that its implementation will be delayed for a study into the question of just what comprises RC-classified content is partially welcome. It’s annoying, given that this was a blazingly obvious problem with the proposal as soon as it was announced, but late is arguably better than never in this instance. (That attitude is pretty obvious in many of the industry responses to the announcement.)
That said, and as Nick persuasively argues over at Gizmodo, that doesn’t change the fact that the Labor government still believes filtering to be a good idea. All it does is potentially hold off the day when some form of that policy becomes reality. It also does nothing to address concerns over related policies such as mandatory data retention.
For that reason, simply assuming that the battle is won would be dangerous. As such, Gizmodo’s Fight The Filter campaign — collecting together the arguments against the filter — seems more timely than ever, and well worth keeping an eye on in the weeks ahead as the inevitable election announcement appears.
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