Filter will cost $90,000 per
website
The Australian government's plan to build an antipodean
equivalent of the Great Firewall of China will cost $90,000 per blocked
website.
Tests for the “Great Rabbit Proof Fence” are being carried out
by ISPs but according to documents released under the Australian Official
information act show that the government has not developed any criteria
to determine whether trials of the scheme are a success.
Nine ISPs
are trialling the web censorship plan, which will block all content that has
been "refused classification" by the Australian Communications and Media
Authority. The government has has admitted that "there are not success
criteria as such" and the opposition thinks that it sounds as though the
government will filter as many sites as the technology
allows.
Without benchmarks the Government can claim it was a success
regardless of the cost or performance issues.
With the exception of
right wing born again Christians who want the entire Internet censored, the
Rudd government is finding very little support for the Great Rabbit Proof
fence. Harping on about protecting children has not made up for the
suspicion that the government will use the technology to filter opposition.
Australians might be conservative but they are not ready for a society that
authoritarian.