Posted by
Arnie on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 6:20:34 PM
Our time may be limited folks. So, if you don't mind I'll be typing quick and may mispel some words here as I try to get this out there on the net before it's too late, but in some places it's already too late. "Filtering of the internet" is already happening. I's a fancy term for censorship. But they say, it's not about restricting free speech, it is about "protecting " the vulnerable.
Amnesty International has organized a conference where this subject will be the main topic and purpose. How to protect the freedoms associated with the open internet, the new media, the cyber space where bloggers and people spending oogles of time searching for information of the world, or for whatever floats their boat. The 'free' usage of the www has been a technological breakthrough of unprecedented proportions of information sharing and other not so very nice things. As the ad of a major retailer indicates, "it's all inside." And it's there for almost anyone with a desire. At home, the office, or if you do not have your own computer, it's available at local librarys. Click, type a search word, and read. Freedom. But there is a catch.
The catch is that some governments don't like their people knowing some things. And there are some here in the US of A that feel the same way. So far, it appears that China is the worst at blocking out certain areas of information that the officials feel would be detrimental to their power continuance.
"The Chinese model of an internet that allows economic growth but not free speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers," said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director."
"Unless we act on this issue, the internet could change beyond all recognition in the years to come."
"According to the latest Open Net Initiative report on internet filtering, at least 25 countries now apply state-mandated net filtering including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco and Saudi Arabia."
Story is here.
Censorship is on the rise. WND has reported that certain areas of our own military bases had blocked access to wnd.org, the online news and opinion source created by Joseph Farah. Amnesty indicates that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are complicit in the problem. These companies say that by restricting some sites from being accessed from China, they are just abiding by local laws.
"Filtering was only one aspect of internet repression, the group said. It added that increasingly it was seeing "politically motivated" closures of websites and net cafes, as well as threats and imprisonments." Some have been imprisoned for critizing the ruling class.
The bottom line. It's a trend and it could come to America in one way or another. Most likely we will see some sort of restrictions on the not so nice areas of the www in the name of decency. Most of us can agree on that, but that does open up a can of worms for the equal rights for all lawyers to get into the playground and make a few bucks in the name of protecting our freedoms.
But remember, with freedom comes responsibility. We all like the freedom part, but not the responsibility part.