Electronic Frontiers Australia
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox organization Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (EFA) is a non-profit Australian national non-government organisation representing Internet users concerned with online liberties and rights. It has been vocal on the issue of Internet censorship in Australia.<ref name=Green09>Template:Cite book</ref>
Its main objective is to protect and promote the civil liberties of users and operators of computer-based communications systems such as the Internet. It also advocates the amendment of laws and regulations in Australia and elsewhere which restrict free speech as well educating the community at large about the social, political, and civil-liberties issues involved in the use of computer-based communications systems.<ref name=Green09/>
The organisation has warned against privacy invasions following the distribution of a draft code of practice for ISPs and their response to cybercrime.<ref name="nago">Template:Cite book</ref> It has also warned against intellectual property clauses in free trade agreements between Australia and the United States.
HistoryEdit
EFA was created in 1994.<ref name=Green09/> Its founders were inspired by the US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but EFA is not affiliated with the EFF.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> EFA is a founding member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In June 1997, the EFA acquired redacted copies of the Walsh Report under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, and released the redacted version on their site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1999, the organisation moved against legislation aiming to filter internet pornography and other material deemed unfit for public consumption online that was pursued by politicians such as Brian Harradine.<ref name="etis">Template:Cite book</ref>
The EFA spoke out against the rulings in relation to convicted Holocaust denier Fredrick Töben and his Adelaide Institute,<ref>Template:Cite AustLII.</ref> taking the view that "when encountering racist or hateful speech, the best remedy to be applied is generally more speech, not enforced silence."<ref>EFA Letter to HREOC, Oct 1998</ref> One of the reasons mentioned is that suppressing such content results in perception that the speaker must have something important to say, and "massively increased interest in what would otherwise be marginal ideas."
In 2006, the EFA pushed against Cleanfeed, a mandatory ISP level content filtration system proposed by Kim Beazley.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Internet filtering was later pursued by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy. The EFA presented a petition against mandatory internet filtering with 19,000 signatures to the Australian Senate.<ref name="pro19">Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Australian Classification Board
- Copyright law of Australia
- Internet Australia
- Mass surveillance in Australia
- Privacy in Australian law
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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