In an increasingly crowded digital world, we have a lot of questions about where the lines between good and bad can be drawn.
Geo-blocking is an emerging topic.
The technology is being deployed for some serious political reasons, with one of the earliest examples being in Australia’s 2016 federal election.
This story was originally published on October 25, 2017.
A new poll by YouGov has revealed that a growing number of Australians want to end geo-blocking, while a growing proportion also want ISPs to make sure that all of their customers have the ability to surf the web without geo-restriction.
The survey of 2,000 Australians found that 63 per cent of respondents said they’d support blocking geo-blocks, with 29 per cent saying they supported blocking geo IP addresses.
This equates to 51 per cent support for blocking geo.
However, a further 27 per cent opposed the idea, and 11 per cent did not know.
Respondents also indicated that blocking geo was not a good idea for Australians in general, with 61 per cent against it, and just 17 per cent supporting it.
A number of ISPs have been targeted with geo-blockers in recent months.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently launched a counter-piracy operation against BitTorrent pirates, which has included a number of attempts at blocking the use of geo-restricted services.
The government also announced it would introduce a new law to ban blocking of mobile phones and tablets in November.