encouraging Australian Internet users to take part in its Great Blackout Campaign, by blocking their profiles on Twitter and by 'blacking out' the home page of their web site.Oh dear, a Twitter-free day ... or a "National Day of Action" without tweets from the self-identified digerati. Somehow I don't think that the Government will be brought quivering to its knees and civilisation as we know it will cease because a handful of geeks have prised themselves away from the keyboards and screens in a brave protest "against the Government's plan to introduced mandatory ISP-side Internet filtering".
I've hitherto resisted the temptation to comment on the censorship plan, given the shrill - and at times quite disingenuous - comments from advocates for/against mandatory filtering. The Government's plan strikes me as clumsy and, given my past criticisms of filtering, as oversold. Censorship 'security theatre' is problematical because it is likely to induce unrealistic expectations among some consumers that all offensive content (or the most offensive content) has been comprehensively blocked, enabling parents/guardians to safely abdicate responsibility for those under their care.
Notions of internet exceptionalism, in particular claims that we must not restrict any online content, are equally problematic. In practice liberal democratic governments have attempted, usually with considerable success, to restrict the dissemination of particular content through print and electronic media and through face to face contact. That restriction can be justified on human rights grounds and we might question unthinking adoption of an ideology founded on misunderstandings about the US Constitution's enshrinement of free speech. Is the net so special that it's situated outside legal frameworks?
A day without tweets will attract media attention but life will continue, perhaps even for the better. Step outside, Twitterers, and get some fresh air. While you are there you might contemplate whether there are other aspects of regulation that deserve attention and whether it's time to forgo being cyberselfish, instead taking substantive action against human rights abuses in Australia and overseas. Staying away from the keyboard for a few hours is a lazy protest. Depriving readers of rivetting personal communiques about whether the Twitterer had fries for lunch, is hungover or is rooly mad at big bad Senator Conroy may affect that author's self-esteem but has the same negligible impact - and the same self-indulgence - as buying a plastic bracelet to make world poverty go away overnight.
