ISPs in AU and NZ start censoring the internet without legal precedent
Several websites including Voat, ZeroHedge, Archive.is, LiveLeak, and others have been blocked in Australia and New Zealand in direct contravention to civil liberties that citizens are supposed to have. The biggest of these internet providers, Telstra, has published a blog post defending their censorship action – even acknowledging that free speech has been sacrificed by company decision:
“We appreciate that it is necessary to ensure free speech is carefully balanced against protecting the community – but with these sites continuing to host disturbing content we feel it is the right thing to do to block them.”
In fact, some of the blocked sites have been unfairly lambasted in mainstream media as “refusing” to take down offending material. Let’s be clear, each and every one of the blocked websites operates lawfully – that includes removing illegal material when requested. These internet service providers (ISPs) in Australia and New Zealand have taken it upon themselves to play judge, jury, and executioner in their condemnation of these websites and their visitors just for exercising free speech.
In New Zealand, mobile internet service providers take it upon themselves to enact censorship
Starting over the weekend, Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ, and Vocus NZ were the three New Zealand ISPs that have taken it upon themselves to block these sites. On their part, the ISPs and smartphone network providers are claiming that these are only temporary blocks. Temporary blocks that have lasted multiple days – more than long enough to change people’s’ browsing habits. Even the perpetrators of this censorship are aware how unprecedented it is. Geoff Thorn, a chief executive at New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF), commented to CIO:
“This is an unprecedented move by the telecommunications industry, but one that they all agree is necessary.”
CIO additionally confirmed that the ISPs are working together to ban the same sites.
In Australia, censorship also happens at the whim of the internet providers
Unsurprisingly, the over-reactive censorship has even started spreading around the world. Starting Monday the 18th, Telstra and Vodafone in Australia have also implemented these blocks network wide – that means even the many Australians using Vodafone reseller networks are affected by Vodafone’s censorship decisions. Of course, Facebook is not one of the sites that has been blocked.
https://twitter.com/James23235689/status/1107657943678279680
Vodafone has even confirmed that they were told to place the blocks, and they will remove the blocks when they are “advised” that the illegal content has been removed.
Censoring free speech is never “the right thing to do”
The internet providers in Australia and New Zealand are sliding down an incredibly slippery slope against free speech. Previously, in Australia and other parts of the world like Russia and Philippines, ISPs would not censor access to websites unless clearly told to by the government. The precedent that internet providers can decide when to start blocking sites seemingly arbitrarily has now both been set and abused… All in the name of “doing the right thing.”
Hi Matt, Vodafone Australia has temporarily blocked sites known to be actively hosting footage of the shootings in Christchurch. We believe it's absolutely the right thing to do. When we receive advice the content has been removed from these sites, we will then remove the block.
— Vodafone Australia (@VodafoneAU) March 18, 2019
Simply put: It’s not the right thing to do. Free speech is an absolute concept and by that virtue alone – this is not the right thing to do.
A full list of blocked websites can be found below:
- voat.co
- 4chan.org
- 8ch.net
- liveleak.com
- archive.is
- bitchute.com
- zerohedge.com
- kiwifarms.net
- eztvstatus.com
- dissenter.com
- documentingreality.com
- bestgore.com
- archive.fo
Please let us know in the comments below if any blocked websites are missing from this list.
Comments are closed.
67 Comments
Outraged!! This certainly helps in my voting preference!! Liberals OUT
Archive.fo is blocked here, too.
I’m glad a major VPN provider (who I subscribe to) has put the truth of the censorship out there.
The only thing that bothers me is I’m routing my traffic through one of the New Zealand nodes and their government could potentially order the network carrier to investigate who is using it. Is that something PIA has seen before?
If I recall correctly PIA used to have servers in Russia but they then shut them down when the Russian governemtn implemented some law that would force internet services in the country to keep records of everything.
anonymize dot com has also been blocked.
LOL. Another idiot who doesn’t realize that the concept of “free speech” only applies to _governments_.
No private company or individual is required to carry content they don’t want to.
This is is private companies deciding they don’t want to propagate hate.
Complain about that if you want, but it’s not a free speech issue.
You’re a fucking idiot. I hope you die ASAP so as to help further the progress of our planet toward a righteous prosperous goal, not a cynical ignorant one as you exemplify.
I hope you get taken to the gulag for having offensive videos on your hard drive. You don’t deserve to use the internet lol.
Corporations are, of course, creatures of the government and not private companies.
Applying the label “hate” to content that you don’t like makes you look like an idiot.
It absolutely is a free speech issue.
Listen, idiot: companies don’t just get to do whatever they want.
When “private” actors who collectively control almost the entire market collude to restrict speech or access to services, then the government has an obligation and a right to intervene in order to protect subjects against undue restriction. This is the exact idea behind anti-trust laws and laws against exclusive dealing; it’s also the same thinking as sits behind the common law principle that one has a right to cross another man’s land if doing so is reasonably necessary for access to one’s own property.
Of course all of this is only relevant if we suppose that the claim that this action has been undertaken without government involvement can be accepted at face value, which is a questionable supposition at best.
Regardless of the idea of free speech (a concept that is a little looser in Australia than the American equivalent), an ISP company is bound by several things: a contract with the customer, a responsibility to present factual information. It’s likely that 1 or both of these are violated by censoring sites like the above.
No retard. The concept of free speech applies to everything, not just the government. Your pea brain is thinking of governments who do not punish there people for exercising their free speech. There is no reason why the protection could be extended to not being punished by private entities.
It’s the entirety of the Internet industry acting, in effect, as a cartel, except they’re doing it for the purpose of censorship rather than financial gain. Which, unfortunately, makes it legal, but any citizen of a free country should ask themselves what their legal process is really worth, if it can be so easily circumvented by a bunch of unelected CEOs.
^Another idiot who doesn’t understand the relationship between big telecom and government. This is not about what a company is required to do by law. This is about what they are doing.
LOL another idiot who thinks corporate rule is a good idea. Imbecile.