Six HUGE Realities when Governments Close the Internet Frontier

The Government’s Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill is now headed for the Senate after passing the House of Representatives this week; at that point it will become clear whether the Government is minded to offer amendments to address the tripartisan recommendations of the Cyber Safety Committee on fixing some of the more egregious problems of overreach in the bill, or whether the Opposition,
as it did with the recent extension of ASIO’s espionage powers, is happy to wave it through as is.

There is now a definite “closing of the frontier” moment for the internet; or at least that’s what many of the world’s biggest corporation and governments of both democratic and repressive stripe would
like us to believe is inevitable. That was certainly the tone adopted by Nicolas Sarkozy in May at his “eG8” gathering of gatekeepers to talk about how to civilize the internet.

“You are not a parallel universe, freed from the rule of law,” said Sarkozy who presides over an internet regulatory regime even more draconian that US lawmakers have tried to concoct railed.

In short, the days of the online Wild West are over: time for governments to move in, round up the bandits and rustlers and impose law and order so that families and communities can grow there.

1. Seamless cross-border law enforcement

2. Shutting down the internet for security purposes

3. An end to online anonymity

4. The manufactured social space

5. The online surveillance state

6. ISPs as law enforcers

[link to www.crikey.com.au]