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Internet Blackout: The final verdict

The Great Australian Internet Blackout campaign against mandatory ISP-level filtering has attracted twice as many websites to its cause as had pledged before it began.
Written by Suzanne Tindal, Contributor

The Great Australian Internet Blackout campaign against mandatory ISP-level filtering has attracted twice as many websites to its cause as had pledged before it began.

Great Australian Internet Blackout

An example of a site under blackout
(Credit: Ben Grubb/ZDNet.com.au)

A spokesperson for the campaign said today that since the start of the protest on Monday over 1000 sites had joined the protest by blacking out their sites — showing a protest notification that those visiting the site had to close. The protest ends today.

Five hundred sites had said they would carry the JavaScript for displaying the message before the week began, but they didn't all put the message up at the same time, meaning the protest got off to a slow start.

However, gradual growth continued and today over 1000 sites were displaying the anti-filtering message. The pop-up was also viewed half a million times by people visiting the blacked-out websites.

One of the spokespeople for the protest said he was really happy with the numbers, since he thought that of the 500 who'd pledged, not all would go through with it.

A spokesperson for Electronic Frontiers Australia, which has been supporting the protest, said that having the message on so many websites has widened the ring of those aware about the action from the technically gifted into the broader sphere.

It hasn't stopped there, however. The Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesperson said that another campaign website was already in the works, and that the organisation was going to take out advertising on the issue.

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