Enemy of the internet: Australia under surveillance for violating online freedoms

AUSTRALIA has been added to a list of countries that are "under surveillance" for violating online freedoms.

Reporters Without Borders

AUSTRALIA has been listed as a potential "enemy of the internet".

Reporters Without Borders has released its annual “Enemies of the Internet” list - and although Australia is not on the official list, we are on their radar.

Australia was added to a list of countries that were “under surveillance” due to the Federal Government’s unwillingness to officially scrap its national censorship scheme, despite its massive unpopularity.

The non-transparency of the filtering scheme and the fact that the Government has broadened the scope of its “classified criteria” was also a cause for concern.

Other countries on the watch list include South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka and Egypt as nations that are considered to be a threat to democracy and freedom of information.

“To bypass the political status quo, members of the Internet Industry Association introduced a voluntary system in July last year, based on Interpol’s blacklist rather than the one compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the official body responsible for censorship,” Reporters Without Borders wrote on its website.

Bahrain, and Belarus were added to this year’s official “Enemies of the Internet” list due to their drastic content filtering and monitoring of “cyber dissidents”, joining countries such as China, Cuba, Burma, Saudia Arabia, Vietnam and Syria.

Libya and Venezuela were dropped from the list of countries that were under surveillance, while India and Kazakhstan were added to it.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy’s spokesperson told news.com.au the Government tabled the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the National Classification Scheme.

“The report will be taken into account by the Convergence Review, which is due to submit its own final report to the Government by the end of March for Government’s response to the report will occur along with its consideration of the Convergence Review,” the spokesman said.

“Three retail service providers - Telstra, Optus and CyberOne - are already blocking the Interpol ‘worst of’ list and the Government encourages all RSPs to participate to prevent, deter and disrupt the availability of child exploitation material.”

Read the full report here.