Global net censorship 'growing'

[TechBear_Seattle]

Global net censorship 'growing'

The level of state-led censorship of the net is growing around the world, a study of so-called internet filtering by the Open Net Initiative suggests.

The study of thousands of websites across 120 Internet Service Providers found 25 of 41 countries surveyed showed evidence of content filtering.

Websites and services such as Skype and Google Maps were blocked, it said.

Such "state-mandated net filtering" was only being carried out in "a couple" of states in 2002, one researcher said.

"In five years we have gone from a couple of states doing state-mandated net filtering to 25," said John Palfrey, at Harvard Law School.

The article continues at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6665945.stm

[derby378]

1. Tyrants and dictators often hate two things more than anything else...

(1) Heavily armed civilians, and (2) a free exchange of information and ideas.

[Cerridwen]

2. "the private sector rather than the government tends to carry out filtering"

I find that a chilling statement.

From the article "A number of states in Europe and the US were not tested because the private sector rather than the government tends to carry out filtering, it said."

You see, what it means is that it's not called censorship if private industry does it. The U.S., and apparently the U.K., allow the private sector to do that dirty work for which "the government" would be condemned. So, what if private industry was in control of government or the government was not in control of private industry? You know, kind of like it is? Then, private industry applies "filtering", the government turns a blind eye and it is censorship in all but name.

But, hey, I can still post to DU and there aren't any sites that are blocked from my view - er, that I know of - so, no skin off my nose. /snark

Oh well, I'm sure it'll never happen here.

:sarcasm:



edit to put the quote in context - oopsie.

[Cerridwen]

3. Kick and recommend and an apology

Sorry, TechBear, I didn't mean to kill your thread. *sigh*

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Don't worry about it

I've killed plenty of threads myself. :hi: