Petition Against Content Regulation

A petition to help fight against Internet content regulation proposals of the Australian government!
Signatures have now closed.

For information on current activity to oppose the Internet Censorship Bill see our May 28 National Day of Action page .

Signatures obtained to 18th May 1999: 12975

This petition was forwarded to the Australian Senate on 18th May 1999 and the collection of signatures is now closed. (The Clerk of the Senate approved the presentation of "electronic petitions" in 1997). Australian residents wishing to make their views known on the Australian Government's Internet Censorship proposals are urged to contact their MPs and Senators directly. Organisations who publicly supported the petition are listed below.

EFA calls upon the Internet community to rally against legislation tabled on April 21st 1999. The legislation includes:

• a ban on non-violent erotica (NVE or X-rated) online, despite them being legal offline
• use of Film guidelines to classify Internet content, making many books Unrestricted in print illegal online
• a requirement for ISPs to block "prohibited" content from overseas, within 24 hours of receiving a notice, on pain of fines of $27,500 per day
• a requirement for adult verification systems on Australian R-rated content
• no exemption for private communications

The Petition

To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in the Parliament assembled:

The undersigned Petitioners respectfully request that the Senate recognises:

• That, for many Australians, the Internet plays a vital role as a means of communication, a vehicle for the expression of ideas and opinions, and a source of information.

• That the Internet is a complex, global environment where traditional concepts of regulation are not easily applied or enforced.

• That there is a need to make a clear distinction between the responsibility of those who produce and publish content and that of intermediaries such as carriers and Internet Service Providers.

• That the full potential for development of the Internet in Australia will depend on governments recognising rights to freedom of speech taken for granted by other societies.

• That the emerging information industries should not be burdened with unnecessary and poorly conceived regulation.

• Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA)
• Internet Society, Australian Chapter (ISOC-AU)
• West Australian Internet Association (WAIA)
• South Australian Internet Association (SAIA)
• Australian Democrats
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• Association des Utilisateurs d'Internet (France)
• Community - The Computer Communicators Association (UK)
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
• Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
• Derechos Human Rights
• The Digital Citizens Foundation Netherlands
• Electronic Frontier Canada
• Fronteras Electronicas Espana (Spain)
• NetAction (USA)
• Privacy International
• Quintessenz (Austria)
• Xs4all (Netherlands)

You too can help support the campaign by linking to the petition site from your Web page. Insert the following HTML code on your page:

    <a href=http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/petition.html>
    <img src=http://www.efa.org.au/Images/petition.gif width=115 height=154 
     align=left hspace=10 alt="[ Sign the Petition ]"></a>

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. is a voluntary non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of online civil liberties and online privacy. Any information collected by this petition will be used solely for the purpose of presentation to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia and will not be transferred, shared with, or sold to any other parties. All information collected will be deleted by Electronic Frontiers Australia after the petition has been tabled in Parliament.

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Copyright © 1998 Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.