The New Zealand government has decided to start filtering your internet.

While initially the filter will only be used to attempt to block child pornography, we don’t believe that the government will be able to resist the temptation to spread its net further and further.

The filter won’t stop people trading child pornography. The people who trade this material use technology such as peer to peer file sharing that the filter won’t stop. It’s also easy for a motivated person to circumvent.

The filter will weaken the New Zealand internet by providing a single point of a failure and a tempting target for hackers.

We believe that the Internet filtering scheme should be abandoned. It goes against principles of privacy and freedom from search, it is ineffective for its purpose, it weakens the Internet, and it sets a worrying precedent that a government department can arbitrarily decide to block Internet traffic of its choosing.

What can I do?

Some suggestions:

• Get angry. The government is trying to sneak this in and we shouldn’t let them.
• Tell your friends. Send them to this page.
• Stay informed. Follow @techliberty on Twitter.
• Learn more. Read the Filtering Frequently Asked Questions or the Filtering Technical Questions.
• Write to your MP. Tell them that you think that the government shouldn’t be filtering the Internet.
• Write to your ISP. Tell them that you don’t want them to sign up for the filter. Check the list of which ISPs will or won’t be implementing the filter.
• Write to your local newspaper. Make sure that more people learn what the government is doing.
• Join a protest group. Both Tech Liberty and Internet NZ oppose the filter.