THE Coalition and the Greens are united in their support for optional internet filters being made available to households, creating a sharp contrast with Labor's commitment to a mandatory filter put in place by internet service providers.

Both parties are hoping to capitalise on unrest about Labor's filter plan, which has been attacked for creating a platform for internet censorship and potentially slowing internet speeds, though both criticisms have been rejected by the government.

A long internal battle was fought in the Coalition over the mandatory filter. Ultimately the anti-mandatory filter elements, headed by the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, won, leading to him - rather than the communications spokesman, Tony Smith - revealing the new policy in a radio interview a fortnight ago.
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The full policy, released by Mr Smith last week, commits $60 million to provide computer-based filters to households, harking back to the downloadable filter introduced by the Howard government but scrapped by Labor.

Jordanian netizens had a rude awakening when news surfaced about the sentencing of Imad Al-Ash to two years in prison - for insulting the Jordanian monarch in an instant message (IM) he had sent to a friend. The computer engineering student was allegedly detained and tortured for five months before the state security court heard his case. Jordanian bloggers have their say here.

Naseem Al Tarawnah says the charge is so “dangerous that it's not even funny.”

He adds:

First, the fact that it’s the 21st century and Jordanians are still being tried for lese majeste - a law so archaic that it begs to reason why any nation would dare continue to use it and still promote itself as progressive - is beyond me. If anything, this is one of those laws that world history has proven to be pretty damn useless and ineffective. It doesn’t stop people from insulting the country’s ruler, in fact it encourages critics to do so (as is the case in Morocco these days), and more over, it solidifies the idea that one lives in an authoritarian state.

The Coalition has announced it will scrap controversial plans for an internet filter if it wins the August 21 election.

Federal Labor's controversial plan to filter the internet could be dead in the water after the Coalition announced it opposed the policy.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said on Thursday a Coalition government would abandon Labor's "flawed" filter policy.

Instead, a Tony Abbott-led government would encourage parents to take more responsibility for monitoring their children's use of the web.

The UAE’s proposed BlackBerry ban is sparking numerous statements of support for the phone’s Canada-based maker Research in Motion (RIM), except from the one entity expected to be the first to speak up: the Canadian government.

Human rights organizations have joined the United States in condemning the decision of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to suspend Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail, and Blackberry Web-browsing services starting Oct. 11 unless it can access encrypted messages, citing security concerns.

But the Canadian government is mum.

RIM will be talking to the Indian government this week - trying to explain just how difficult it is to intercept encrypted communications, while promising to do just that.

The Indian government has already said that if it can't intercept BlackBerry messages by the end of the month it will ask network operators to cut off the service, and now it has put that into writing with a formal request to the network operators charging them to implement a solution:

"We have received a letter ... asking us to ensure that legal intervention capability is put in place for BlackBerry services by 31 August 2010," said Tata, one of the companies that received the missive.

BlackBerry mobile phone maker Research In Motion (RIM) has agreed to provide security agencies partial access to its messenger services by September 1.

The company also promised to allow complete assess to the security establishment by end of this year. RIM’s decision came in the backdrop of the government issuing ultimatum to the company to stop its services unless it came up with a technical solution to the issue of interception of its services by August 31.

Jakarta. The government’s plan to block “offensive sites” on the Internet has come under fire from several Web sites, including two major news portals, which have suffered from access problems, presumably as a result of the plan.

News portal Detik.com’s advertisement section and Kompas.com were inaccessible on Wednesday morning, prompting Internet users and media experts to question a recent policy mandated by Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring.

On Monday, Tifatul said that 80 percent of “offensive sites” on the Internet in Indonesia had been blocked.

However, Detik.com founder and chairman Budiono Darsono expressed his outrage on Wednesday when the portal’s subdomain was blocked.

Reporters Without Borders is worried by a provisional cyber crimes law that the government decreed on 3 August and calls for its repeal. By establishing a legal framework for news and information websites and specifying sanctions for violators, it has created a legislative arsenal that can be used to regulate the Internet and punish those whose posts upset the authorities.

The penalties, which range from fines to forced labour, depend on the content posted. The authorities have invoked the need to defend the public interest and regulate the online “chaos” but website owners and online journalists regard the law as a threat to the freedom of the media and communications.

India has given the maker of BlackBerry phones a deadline of 31 August to provide the government access to all of its services or face being shut down.

The country fears the device could be used by militants and insurgents in a repeat of the 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

The row is the latest in a long running dispute between Research in Motion (RIM) and international governments.

RIM declined to comment on the deadline.

The central issue is how governments monitor the encrypted traffic from BlackBerry devices.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The militants who carried out the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, used mobile phones and other handheld gadgets to coordinate an assault that left 166 dead.

Cell phones with video cameras helped bring the world the iconic footage of a young Iranian woman dying of a gunshot wound in the midst of the country's 2009 "Green Revolution" — images spread rapidly on websites the government tried feverishly to block.

Now the use of new, sophisticated technologies is raising alarm in the Arab world's two biggest economies. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have threatened to cut off popular BlackBerry services unless they wring out concessions that would almost certainly give them greater access to user information.

Both countries cite security threats. The U.S. says those concerns are legitimate. But critics say the governments' fears also provide a convenient justification to further tighten controls on the flow of information they believe could stir opposition or morally corrupt their societies.