A (tit)storm in a teacup?

3 Responses

The controversial internet censorship debate continues to rage in Australia.  Protesters who are opposed to the proposed filter brought down several government websites last week in an online activist Disruption of Service attack known as “Operation Titstorm“and the hackers have threatened to continue until their protests are heard.

But is this actually going to achieve their aims? Due to the frankly juvenile nature of the protesters’ rhetoric, much of the message is getting lost – naturally most media coverage has focused on the salacious angle, reducing the debate to a polarising pro-vs. anti-porn lobbying attempt.

We do a lot of consultancy work around Government 2.0, and it’s our view that whatever the nature of the debate, governments should be taking more advantage of the unprecedented access and tools available to help them engage with and listen to the electorate – and respond, where appropriate.

I have the sense that perhaps this attack stems from a sense of frustration that the policy-makers and politicians are not listening.  The ABC / Hungry Beast survey provided the perhaps surprising result that 80% of Australians support the mandatory internet filter – a marked increase compared the 51% in favour from recorded in Whirlpool’s 2007 survey.  However,  “91% of Australians were in favour of making public the list of websites that would be blocked by the internet filter” – which essentially means that those Australians surveyed are not in favour of the filter as it’s currently being proposed.

In my view, the Titstormers are doing us all a significant disservice by hijacking and clouding the debate so those who are perhaps less tech-savvy or less well informed aren’t able to clearly see the real issues at stake.  But arguably the government is doing us a much greater disservice by pushing ahead with a bill we don’t support without allowing us all, as citizens, to contribute to the development of this policy.