The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued its first directions to Internet service providers (ISPs) to block their subscribers from accessing unauthorised offshore sites.
The government is forging ahead with a plan to have Internet service providers (ISPs) block their customers from accessing overseas-based gambling sites, which are banned under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
The federal government has confirmed to Computerworld that it is assessing the feasibility of a filtering scheme that will see customers of major Internet service providers (ISPs) blocked from accessing overseas-based gambling services that are not licensed to operate in Australia.
Guidance for Australian Securities and Investments Commission staff on the use of Section 313 (3) of the Telecommunications Act to block Australians' access to particular websites or online services are currently in draft form and awaiting sign-off from ASIC’s legal office, some 10 months after the government issued whole-of-government guidelines.
The government has released guidelines for Commonwealth agencies that employ Section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act to request ISPs’ assistance to disrupt illegal online services.
With the government yet to finalise whole-of-government guidelines for the use by federal agencies of Section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act to block Australians’ access to websites, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has moved to develop internal guidelines on its use of the power.
Almost three years after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) discovered that notices it had issued to a number of telecommunications carriers had led to the erroneous blocking of hundreds of thousands of websites for some Internet users, the government has yet to develop guidelines for use of the controversial legal mechanism.
Communications Alliance, a group representing Australian telecommunications and Internet service provider businesses, has warned against expanding the scope of a law employed by government agencies to block public access to websites.
A report by parliament's Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications has rejected calls for limits to be imposed on the use of the Section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 to block access to online services.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the use by government agencies of Subsection 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 to block Australian Internet users' access to websites engaged in illegal activities.
The Australian Federal Police have primarily issued notices under Section 313 of the Telco Act to request Internet service providers block their customers' access to websites hosting child exploitation material.
Government agencies issuing notices under section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 asking Internet services providers to block websites does not constitute "a policy of broad-based internet filtering", the Department of Communications has argued.
The Australian Crime Commission has rejected calls for limits on the government agencies that can issue notices under Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Internet service provider iiNet, the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) and industry bodies the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and the Communications Alliance have all called for restrictions on the government agencies that can issue requests for ISPs to block websites.
Teams at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that employed section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 to force Internet service providers to block access to websites "were not aware that a single IP address can host multiple websites," the financial watchdog has revealed.