Update: Tech giants slam internet censorship

This came as Google Australia said early in the day that the planned ISP filter being introduced by the federal government is not feasible.  Google made the comment in its 24-page submission to the government and added that they have talked directly with parents and found that parents prefer to see more actions on cyber safety education than censuring the internet.

"The importance of a better effort to educate parents and children about online safety was repeatedly highlighted as the area where most effort should be focused," stated in the 24-page submission.

On Tuesday, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy published 174 submissions that aim to improve transparency and accountability of its internet filtering policy.

The industry is expecting the government to introduce a bill requiring ISPs to filter sites. The filter will block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians on a mandatory basis.

Majority of the submissions want full transparency of the list and for all sites included on the lists by the Australian Communications and Media Authority to be examined first by the Classification Board.

The submissions are also requesting a regular review of the list to be conducted by an independent expert and for a mechanism that will allow a blacklisted site to appeal the decision.

For its part, Microsoft wanted protection against "arbitrary executive decision making" regarding content added to the list. It also noted that some banned material can be loaded on to a site without the consent of the site's owner.

Yahoo and Google's submissions, along with many others, expressed concerns that the scope of content to be filtered was too broad.

"Yahoo are entirely supportive of any effort to make the internet a safer place for children, however mandatory filtering of all RC material could block content with a strong social, political and/or educational value," Yahoo's submission said.

The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations expressed concerns that the new rule could blacklist even sites that are valuable to sexual health promotion.

Mark McLelland, an associate professor in the sociology program at the University of Wollongong, explained that the filters could block access to an entire genre of niche except Japanese animated fiction.

The Australian Christian Lobby, one of the biggest supporters of the internet filtering plan, said inadvertently adding innocuous content to the blacklist would "undermine the entire policy".