National filter protest: 6 March

A national day of protests against the Federal Government's internet filtering project, organised by the group Block the Filter, will now take place on 6 March 2010 instead of late January.

The group's Facebook page explained the reasons behind the move, including "many permits were impossible to get during the holiday season, and a few states lack the volunteers to hold a protest during January". The group is currently calling for more volunteers to help organise proceedings on 6 March, with over 10,000 indicating their plans to attend according to the Facebook page, with a further 9000 "maybe attending".

Another protest, The Great Australian Internet Blackout, will go ahead over the Australia Day long weekend, with online action arranged from 25 to 29 January and offline meetings organised for 26 January.

Together with Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), the Blackout Team is encouraging online action, asking websites and internet users to turn their profile pictures or web pages black to raise awareness of opposition to the filter.

Other groups have also been vocal about their opposition to the goverment's filter, with EFA yesterday enlisting new campaign manager, Peter Black, for its mandatory internet filtering campaign.

Black is a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, with research focused on the legal issues of media regulation and the internet. He has his own blog, Freedom to Differ and Twitter (@peterblackQUT).

Via Twitter yesterday, Black stated he was "looking forward to the challenge" of his new role as campaign manager, which will add to the EFA's highly vocal opposition to the government's proposed ISP-level filtering, which includes website No Clean Feed.

According to the 2007 Australian Broadband Survey held by Whirlpool, 74.4 per cent of Australian internet users opposed mandatory ISP-level filtering, with only 13.3 per cent of those polled agreeing with the proposed legislation.