Censorship of this website in Australia

[Pluto]

After some experimentation, I have found that when I access this website via my home internet, it works. But when I use my Vodafone cellular connection, it displays the error message 'Page could not be loaded'. I only looked into it recently when the topic came up on another thread.

At this stage, I am not fully clear on how this works. I recall fiery debate about government censorship some years back, but this is my first time being affected by the so-called web filter. Because some ISPs have more censorship than others, the finer details of this system remain a mystery. But I do feel anxiety at the thought that the government can take away my only source of comfort, and there's no telling when other countries may go down this dubious path.

Internet censorship in Australia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

On 22 May 2009, it was disclosed in the press, citing WikiLeaks, that the Australian Government had added Dr Philip Nitschke's online Peaceful Pill Handbook, which deals with the topic of voluntary euthanasia, to the blocklist maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority used to filter web access to citizens of Australia.[38]​ Euthanasia groups will hold seminars around Australia teaching how to evade the proposed filter using proxy servers and virtual networks. A spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said that euthanasia would not be targeted by the proposed web filter,[39]​ however Stephen Conroy has previously stated that "while euthanasia remains illegal it will be captured by the RC filter".[40]​

 

[OrcWitch]

I hope they dont take it away. Its not fair.

 

[Circles]

Australia is so weird. I don't understand how they've basically became a totalitarian police state in all but name. I understand y'all evolved from being a prison colony and that may play into it but I thought Australians were free spirited and I can't believe most people are okay with how the government has become. It's like China exported its form of government to y'all and I hate to think that's just the first step in taking down western style government despite our flaws.

 

[Shadowplay]

Ha - went to a friend's place and couldn't check SS. I could load the main page, but it wouldn't work when I clicked notifications. Curious.

 

[http-410]

This is probably due to DNS blocking. This can be used by ISPs to block pages, but it is easy to bypass. Some ISPs seem to handle the blocking more consistently than others, like Vodaphone in your case.

I don't think you need to be afraid. In the case of IP blocking, there is Tor, VPNs, and if it's just DNS blocking, it's even enough to just change the DNS. On a cellular network, it is possible to connect (your mobile device) to your home router using a VPN/tunnel, so you can use the (less restrictive) DNS server at home.

However, it is possible that the less restrictive DNS server will also include SS in its blocklist at some point, but this can also be easily circumvented by entering a new DNS server in the router or device. Creating a tunnel from the mobile device to home is possible with WireGuard for example, but requires a little know-how and time to configure it properly.

Since there are also IP blocks in Australia, it may well be that circumventing DNS blocking on SS will no longer be possible in the future. Then you can always fall back on Tor. There's always a way.