We won!

Late last night the Coalition announced it won’t be voting for an internet filter that censors the web. This comes after the Government responded to our campaign by deferring the filter until 2012 (with the likelihood that the filter will never come back in its current form).

With independent Senator Nick Xenophon, the Greens and now the Coalition all walking away from the ineffective policy of censoring the internet, there is now no way for the Senate to pass this scheme.

This is your victory. Thank you!

Check out what we did together — and hear about the ongoing global fight here.

We’ve known all along that a system of internet censorship that missed the vast majority of unwanted content, would encourage the outsourcing of parenting and limit our online freedoms.

And we’ve been joined in these endeavours by our friends at Electronic Frontiers Australia and literally thousands of campaigners in a grassroots movement.

But firewalls, monitoring and governments blocking websites was never just an Australian problem. With our victory comes the realisation that social movements in Iran, China and Burma are still fighting for their political freedoms online. In fact, 30% of the world’s population live in regimes that block access to parts of the internet.

Responsibility falls on us, on this side of the firewall, to help our friends who are forced to live with censored internet and the axing of their political freedoms. That’s why, in partnership with our friends at global campaigning group Avaaz, we’ve gotten behind a worldwide anti-internet censorship movement — AccessNow. Access provides ways for you to provide your voice, your bandwidth and your resources to continue the global flight.

Save the net campaign.

Today’s announcement is a real example of the power of an organised, mature, online movement. Indeed it was new technology and the power of online campaigning, which was itself at risk from internet filtering, that brought this campaign to the masses.

Thank you being a part of this movement,
the GetUp Team

P.S. It’s an historic day for our democracy, as the headlines from Canberra read: “GetUp! High Court win overturns Howard’s electoral laws.” More to come on this HUGE victory…