Photos: Anti internet censorship protest hits Sydney

By Ry Crozier on Feb 20, 2010 2:57 PM
Filed under Networking

Nationwide rally against Government plans.


See all pictures here »

A small contingent of anti-censorship protesters descended on central Sydney today to rally against the Federal Government’s internet filter plans.

The protest (see photo gallery right) was off to a late start with only NSW Police officers in attendance at midday. All but one officer left after a quarter of an hour.

It became apparent a group forming further up Martin Place was the Project Freeweb protest.

After 45 minutes, the group - numbering approximately 20 - made their way down the Place and set up outside Channel Seven’s city studios.

Several shouted “no censorship” and unfurled Chinese flags.

The lone police officer was reported to have jokingly told the protesters they “should be ashamed” because they managed less numbers than an earlier rally against the cancellation of this year’s high school Rock Eisteddfod Challenge.

He farewelled the protest group, which had thinned in numbers but was bolstered by several placards and some photocopied leaflets.

“We are incredibly lucky to live in a time of such readily available data, but if we don’t act now it may be gone,” the leaflet said.

“It [the filter] may seem innocuous enough now, but where does it lead? If the Government claims the power to control what we hear and see, what’s next?”

Project Freeweb protests were due to occur nationwide. Another separate national day of action, backed by Electronic Frontiers Australia, was due to take place on March 6th.

Update: Project Freeweb has updated its website status: "Protests were held by Anonymous all over Australia on Saturday, 20th Feburary 2010 in a global movement to end Internet censorship.

"Nobody showed up and those that did f****d off to the pub within the first hour. Take that [Kevin Rudd]!!!".

An image from another protest location was captioned: "They came in the... tens. LULZ."

6 comments in this discussion

"Hilarious - I haven't got such a good laugh for a long time. Good job Ry - there must be a journalism award you should win for this !!!!"

By Digger11

Tags

sydney, project, freeweb, anonymous, anti, censorship, internet, filter, protest

Tim Berners-Lee calls data retention a 'really, really bad idea'

Industry backs 'workable' filter solution

Pirate Party wins right to contest federal election

Chinese Government tightens Internet controls

Breaking Stories

Aussie retailers falling behind on 'couch commerce'

eHealth measures missing the point

Microsoft adds Azure sub-regions in NSW and VIC

Rio Tinto scales BYOD to 4000 users

Carriers attack NBN Co's 'lack of urgency'

Comments: 6

Goldy Feb 20, 2010 4:53 PM	We got far more people later in the day: http://imgur.com/hYpd8 http://imgur.com/lNHcR But yes, overall it was not as good as we expected. This is partly due to administration failures on the Facebook event. We've heard that the Brisbane/Melbourne protests got 50-100 people each (unconfirmed).
Digglah Feb 21, 2010 4:41 PM	This is just bloody typical! Nobody wants it and nobody is willing to get off their lazy ar**s to actually do anything about it. I live something like 250k's from the nearest city, but I would have been there if I had lived closer. The people that have been complaining (which is everyone) that were capable of turning but didn't should be ashamed! When the hammer comes crashing down, you lazy mongrels better not whinge! You had your chance and blew it!
malice Feb 22, 2010 2:46 AM	I went to the Melbourne one. Only thing wrong was the heat and the start time. The 10am thing meant people came and did an hour or two then left. Kinda like a roster thing. We were handing out flyers and talking to people and such. Overall almost all of the people we talked to didn't know about the filter, if they did then they were against it. If at least a hundred of the people we talked to bother to look up the filter then all is good. But that said... we did go to the pub fairly early. Have to be Australian, yaknow? I'll also be attending the March 6 protests. About doing all I can. But yeah. I had a great time educating people, it was far from the "shout obscenities" people were expecting.
deonast Feb 22, 2010 9:15 AM	Well great way to get people involved Anonymous, on their freeweb page they link to http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Ausfag so as to slag of all Australians. It is no wonder people don't want to show up and be associated with this movement. No offence to those that showed up but the organisation behind them doesn't help matters.
Ace Feb 22, 2010 10:46 AM	On the plus side, the sequence of photos is hilarious! Although I'm sure some would say this protest was ill-conceived, ill-advised, won't work, a waste of tax-payer dollars (a few police turned up) and most of Sydney seemed to iterate the last point, it was definitely democratic and I praise them for coming all the way from Campbelltown to make their voices heard. Given the turn out, You'd have to be think the anti-filter group are an extreme minority. Even if there are 100 supporters for every protester, it is still a tiny drop in the voter pool. My guess is that unless the mainstream press take up this challenge, the filter will happen, like it or not. My feeling is that under Abbott, the filtering scheme would only be enhanced/extended. That doesn't leave many options.
Digger11 Feb 22, 2010 12:17 PM	Hilarious - I haven't got such a good laugh for a long time. Good job Ry - there must be a journalism award you should win for this !!!!