The Futility of Censorship

Here's the great irony: There's more censorship -- all kinds, everywhere, involving more media and culture -- than ever before. But it's doomed to fail. As the Net and Web become more commercial, and as parents, government, schools, politicians, churches and corporations have belatedly grown interested in controlling networked computing and the speech and intellectual property therein, battles over censorship and content -- from school blocking filters to music wars to efforts to curb sexual imagery -- have raged throughout cyberspace. That's why Chicago artist Antonio Muntadas' website "The File Room" may be one of the most significant sites ever created on the Web. Despite relentless efforts to curb art, speech, software, writing, thinking and the free flow of ideas, censorship as a contemporary idea is virtually impossible. The Net killed it, and now the Web is becoming a living, global archive of ideas people want to kill.

Artist Muntadas created "The File Room" (discussed in Steven Wilson's book Information Arts: Intersections of Science, Art and Technology as an archive of censorship, a living record of society's ceaseless efforts to control culture and values. The site uses the Web's global scope to collect and store essays, speeches and artistic works from all over the world which have been subject to censorship, from the Republic of Korea's criminal code to high school newspapers to art exhibits in rural areas city halls. "The File Room" classifies its growing holdings by location, date, media and so-called grounds for censorship.

Anybody can contribute new examples of censorship by filling out a short form on the site, which is also part of an art gallery in downtown Chicago.

The strange dichotomy is that the more censors try to curb information, the bigger and richer "The File Room" grows. Sadly, the site makes clear that the United States -- the creator of the modern idea of free speech -- has become one of the world's most ubiquitous censors. "The File Room" literally feeds off censorship, its archived categories growing all the time -- explicit sexuality, language, nudity, political/economic/social opinion, racial and ethnic, religious, sexual/gender orientation and numerous others. Many of these battles involve the so-called protection of children. The access to information and opinion the Net has given kids is one of the most terrifying ideas of the 21st century.

Beautifully organized -- with sections on visual arts, film/video, print, broadcast and electronic media, public speech, personal opinion, even commercial advertising -- the site has become a trove of ideas, opinions and artworks. It also carries an emotional punch. It's truly moving and outrageous to see some of the works (and thoughts) people and institutions are still trying to kill off. What a curious time -- the most sophisticated and open information machinery in history spreading like wildfire, and narrow-minded idiots all over the planet trying to turn back the clock. There are countless governments and institutions who still believe they can impose their views and values on their children and the rest of the world, if only they can practice censorship.

Online rights is a seminal issue, but the smaller fights sometimes obscure the new and much larger reality. Censorship as we used to know it is no longer a viable option as long as there is a World Wide Web.

Comments

But what if I want to censor what I see?

[anomaly]

It's all to easy to see this issue as "the man" keeping down free speech, but what if I desire to limit what I see? In the book of Job in the Bible, Job says "I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look at a young woman" (presumably in a lustful way.) Like Job, I have no desire to see anyone naked besides myself, my wife and my kids (when bathing them.)

I am coming at this issue from a Christian perspective, but devout Muslims feel strongly about this, too.

Yet, it is extremely difficult for me NOT to see lewd and crude images displayed on my PC.

Some will say - "just don't go to those sites" but the fact is that I receive dozens of SPAM messages with pornographic images each week. These are unsolicited, and unwelcome. They appear in all of the mailboxes that I have, whether or not I use those addresses to post to usenet groups or websites.

Finally, I have tried implementing controls within my browser to respect the self-imposed ratings on web sites and have found that to be relatively worthless because most sites do not participate.

I was SHOCKED to find on my work PC running Linux with xscreensaver that one of the screensavers (it's configured for random mode) contains a photo collage in which one photo depicts a woman penetrating herself with a vibrator! Regardless of my personal convictions on this issue, I could be fired for having that on my PC!

For my house, I'd like to limit the information that is delivered to my home. I don't watch "R" rated movies anymore, (unless the content is so compelling that it calls for me to watch - something that has occurred only once or twice) so why should I allow R and NC17 materials to enter my home through other means?

I want to have good tools for limiting access to that kind of material. Isn't that permissible, or does your picture of "free speech" include jamming whatever content you feel like generating down my throat?

Regards,
Anomaly

PS - God loves you and longs for relationship with you. If you would like to know more, please email me at tom_cooper at bigfoot dot com.

Re:But what if I want to censor what I see?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Like Job, I have no desire to see anyone naked besides myself, my wife and my kids"

you fucking pedophile!