Australian free speech activists are expressing alarm over ‘creeping’ restrictions on their Internet access following the announcement that the new government content-filtering initiative known as the Clean Feed will be mandatory for all Internet users in the country.

The censorship plan allows users to opt out of one level of filtering, designed to protect children from objectionable Internet content and predators, but forces all users to take a feed sanitized of content that the government deems ‘illegal’ under Australian law.

Read the full story at TECHLifePost.com.

Welcome to Hands Off MY Net, The Campaign Against Internet Censorship.

Visit the About HOMN pages (menu at right) for full details on the campaign and to sign our petition.

Visit this page daily for the latest Internet censorship- and security-related news, plus updates on the HOMN campaign.

TECHLife Post security correspondent Eric Jacksch headlines on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa this Wednesday, February 11, at 8:00 a.m.

He’ll be discussing, in depth, the growing spectre of Internet censorship which threatens our fundamental rights to freedom of speech and opinion.

Find out more about Internet censorship at Hands Off MY Net! the campaign against Internet censorship.

European Union commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, told the European Parliament this week that it’s time to consider passing an a measure which would send a strong message to repressive regimes, in Europe and elsewhere, that Internet censorship is unacceptable:

…many authoritarian states block the access to Web sites, filter search engine results and intimidate Internet users. While it is the duty of every government to ensure that the media respect legitimate rules pursuing objectives of public interest such as the protection of minors, restriction of free speech must be exceptional and legitimate. The principle must be freedom of speech.

Read the full story at TECHLifePost.com.

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A Korean blogger whose consistently accurate predictions about the global economy won him a worldwide audience of more than 100,000 was arrested by Korean federal authorities last month and charged with two counts of disseminating false information.

In Korea, as in Latvia, publishing information the government deems false is a federal offense.

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A well-known Latvian economist was arrested by the country’s national Security Police last week for allegedly spreading “untruthful information” about Latvia’s financial system via his blog.

Dmitrijs Smirnovs, a 32-year-old university lecturer, told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), “All I did was say what everyone knows.”

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