Internet filtering will be introduced in Australia

My prediction: Rudd Government will introduce an internet filter regime under the dodgy auspices of stopping the 'nasty stuff'. But...Australia's interwebs is frantically trying to stop the further erosion of human rights, apparently.

The Government's "Clean Feed" (internet filtering) proposal will mean an unacceptable intrusion into the freedoms of Australians online. The right to determine what content I or my family can look is being taken away. The speed of internet access is being made even slower. The people I can associate with online is being taken away. There are not just social issues to consider, there are significant commercial ones too.

There are numerous reasons as to why the Government's "Clean Feed" scheme is bad policy; bad for the economy and the industry. But the response from the interwebs has been woeful at best - ill-coordinated; poorly organized; lacks on the ground physical presence, public support and exposure and activists (RTL or online); no (loosely) agreed plan or plans of action; and poor messaging at worst.

Key moments, campaign wise, have been lost when a little coordination and some activists could have capitalized on the day's news cycle when the "Clean Feed" receives media attention. It is not nearly enough to write to your local Member of Parliament, Senator Conroy and the other Senators from your particular state or territory. Relying on writing letters alone is a sure fire way of failing to swing the minds of backbenchers worried about their seats at the next election. Big business has not even been bothered by or with the filtering proposal, suggesting that they don't believe it to be a threat to business.

Stopping the "Clean Feed" must take a more coordinated approach that seeks to engage the broader community, not just those from the interwebs. Even the #nocleanfeed Twitter search feed fails to tick over at a rate expected from individuals supposedly concerned about our internet being filtered. For if 4 tweets, exactly the same, in the space of 38 hours constitutes 'spamming' the hash tag search, then there is clearly not enough discussion about the issue even among the Australian interwebs. Where is the discussion of the proposal and a means to coordinate actions and what kinds of actions (that's right there has to be a few different things done; it's not all websites, rallies and media). Where is the discussion happening about who is doing what lobbying, who they're lobbying, what they're being told etc.

While the Government's "Clean Feed" proposal is seemingly only opposed by a handful of Australians, then it will be implemented in my opinion.

Licentia per key tabula quod rectum mucro

Twitter for direct online action

Today, after much thought, I launched a trial of one way of using Twitter for direct political action. For the time being I'm calling it a Twitter action

Note Well: This is not a scientific or academic analysis or trial or test. It represents merely my experience and thoughts.

I say one way, as there are probably other online activists also thinking about how to more effectively use applications like Twitter. Considering my existing knowledge and experience using social media and networking, it occurred to me that it may be possible to use Twitter for direct political action. The question became how to do this in the least number of characters.

What I ended up with was this:

say NO to clean feed. pls twt this --> @KevinRuddPM i don't support net censorship #nocleanfeed

Quickly there were results coming in and one that did and didn't surprise me. I was politely asked to stop spamming the 'nocleanfeed' hashtag. I'd sent the same tweet 3 times within the space of an hour and twice within minutes of each other. And it was good advice too.

As the conversation took place. Reply to my tweets:

Tarale: @TRON_Lord Could you um.... stop spamming the #nocleanfeed hashtag? Some people follow it for news on the filtering, not the same tweet over

My reply:

@Tarale sincerest apols...not my intention. am trialling way of using Twitter for online action. lesson learned. thx

And Tarale's response:

Tarale@TRON_Lord Ah, it's OK, I encourage the use of Twitter, just no need to tweet it more than once. Forward on the news about the filter, etc

There have been a handful of Twitter users that have tweeted the message to the official Twitter feed for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Fair to say it is (was) a trial run and the results may prove to be quite patchy. And then there are the myriad of reasons why the results are patchy. Indeed, if the action had come from someone with more 'followers' or influence, then the results may have been different. Spamming the hashtag may have also affected response rates as it may have aggravated users of the hashtag search function.

As I've mentioned it is (was) only a trial of a method of using Twitter to engage in direct online action. It will be interesting to see how others will use it for direct political action.

Licentia per key tabula quod rectum mucro