YNOT – A decentralized group of anti-censorship activists calling itself “Anonymous” has claimed responsibility for a Wednesday morning attack that swamped servers hosting websites for the Australian government. Parliament’s website, the prime minister’s site and the government’s main website were offline for about an hour, according to Reuters, which said government officials denied any infiltration into secure databases or damage beyond inconvenience.Anonymous, which mounted a similar attack against government servers in November, released a statement Monday indicating it would move ahead with “Operation Titstorm.” The group opposes the mandatory internet filtering scheme Australian officials plan to implement by early 2011, and has said it will not rest until the program is scrapped. Most recently, the group has taken exception to the inclusion of porn featuring small-breasted women, female urination and cartoon characters in the government’s list of unwholesome material to be filtered out of Australia.

“Australia’s laws on internet censorship are already among the most restrictive in the western world,” the group’s Monday statement read. “Their government filters more internet content than any other Parliamentary Democracy. For some elements within the government, including Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy, this still is not enough. Late in January of 2009 he proposed legislat[ion] that would lead to mandatory ISP filtering for all of Australia. The stated goal is to prevent Australia from viewing ‘illegal and unwanted content’ on the internet.

“Anonymous’ concern with this legislat[ion] is twofold.

“First, the ambiguity of the term ‘unwanted content’ is completely unacceptable. No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be ‘unwanted.’ Indeed, the only possible interpretation of ‘unwanted content’ is content that the government itself does not want [the content] to be seen.

“More importantly, Anonymous does not approve of the steps already undertaken by the Australian government to control what their populous sees. Claiming to be cracking down on ‘simulated child pornography,’ many depictions of women with small breasts in pornography have been banned. Officials cannot claim that they believe the models in these movies are in fact underage, as the titles that have been affected are heavily regulated to ensure the age of the models. Instead they are relying on earlier ambiguous wording that allows pornography featuring models that ‘appear to be’ under 18 years of age to be treated in the same manner as actual child pornography.

“The repercussions of this censorship of a natural body type on the psyche of Australian women cannot be understated, but this is not Anonymous’ concern. The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn. No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason.”

A spokesman for Conroy, whose Communications Ministry website also was crippled, called the attacks “totally irresponsible” because they could have denied services to Australian citizens.

The proposed filtering scheme has become a bone of contention in the federal elections that will occur this year. A number of anti-censorship groups are exhorting Australians to bear in mind candidates’ stands about the issue when voting.

Few of the groups approve of Anonymous’ modus operandi, though.

“Reports that attacks on federal government websites are being used to draw attention to the government’s plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter are alarming, and any illegal action of this nature must be condemned,” Stop Internet Censorship co-founder Nicholas Perkins said in a statement. “By attempting to bring down or deface government websites, a minority of internet users have brought negative attention to what is a very important issue for Australians.”

Stop Internet Censorship is one of the largest groups opposing the filters, but the group believes voter education to be a more effective tactic than cyber-attacks.

Anonymous typically employs denial-of-service attacks to make its points. The websites 4chan, Futaba and Encyclopaedia Dramatica are strongly associated with the group, a splinter cell of which has dedicated itself to cyber-harassment of Scientology.