THE federal Government’s controversial live ISP filtering trial will finally kick-off with six internet service providers chosen to participate.
Primus Telecommunications, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1 have been selected.
The live tests will last for a minimum of six weeks and the ISPs’ customers have the option of taking part in the trial.
The pilot aims to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of a mandatory internet filtering scheme — a key election pledge by Labor.
It will test against a blacklist of 1370 illegal web pages, including 674 pages containing child sexual abuse content. The list is managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
ISPs have the option of testing against 10,000 web pages but this excludes actual customers.
“The Government is committed to take an evidence-based approach to implementing its cyber-safety policy and these trials will provide valuable information to inform our approach,” Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.
“Arrangements for the first phase of the live pilot have been finalised with six ISPs while consultations continue with a number of other ISPs that have applied to take part.”
The Government’s move to censor the internet has been condemned by many quarters.
Mandatory blocking of the internet, they say, is the Government’s way of squelching freedom of speech and choice. Others claim it would slow down access to the internet.
“Once government-sponsored censorship commences in earnest, it becomes very difficult to know when freedom of choice is being compromised,” iiNet head Michael Malone wrote in a blog post on The Australian. iiNet, alongside No.2 telco Optus, is one of 16 ISPs to register their interest to participate in the trials.
However, child protection agencies such as Child Wise have welcomed the pilot, as illegal material, mainly child pornography, should be blocked.
“How can blocking illegal material (which should not be produced or stored in the first place) be censorship? Viewing child pornography should not even be considered as freedom of speech,” Child Wise chief executive Bernadette McMenamin said in her post on The Australian.
Senator Conroy said the Government was well aware of the technical concerns raised by different parties and the pilot would put the claims to the test.
“The live pilot will provide evidence on the real-world impacts of ISP content filtering, including for providers and internet users. It will provide evidence to assist the Government in the implementation of its policy.”
“ISP filtering is no silver bullet and the Government is implementing a comprehensive set of measures to combat online threats,” Senator Conroy said.
Opposition Communications spokesman Nick Minchin said Senator Conroy needs to explain what his measures of success will be and how many customers have agreed to participate.
“The onus is squarely on Senator Conroy to provide irrefutable evidence of how this can possibly work, without adversely affecting all law-abiding internet users,” Senator Minchin said.
The Opposition, who is against the filtering scheme, will be monitoring the outcome of the trials closely.
“Again we ask the Minister to commit to the independent auditing of any results to verify their credibility.
“You would suspect that these trials would need to include Australia’s largest ISPs to produce reliable data. ”
Telstra, the nation’s largest ISP, decided not participate in the pilot.