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Making Small Steps Against Censorship

Posted by Zonk on from the small-steps-are-better-than-none dept.

JD writes "BBC News has an article about online censorship, blogs in particular. It points out that 'perhaps we need to accept that small gains and slight shifts in direction can make a difference to people's lives, and work for them instead of trying to blast down the walls of repression with a single blow.' Whittling away may be the only realistic way to see change happen."

10 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Blogs: today's main Freedom Tool by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blogs are the modern versions of the small, local newspapers the Founding Fathers had. They allow lone individuals to reach the masses with minimal effort and overhead. It is no wonder that blogs are leading the freedom train.

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    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
    1. Re:Blogs: today's main Freedom Tool by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Every media source is free from fact checking. That includes the Big Media. Hell, if they had done their fact checking then they would have never helped generate as much public support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq as they did.

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      Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  2. article makes a good point... by zxnos · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...laws dont get changed by people breaking them because they disagree with the law. change within the 'system'.

    small steps, it is how we loose freedom, it is how we get it back.

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    always mosh clockwise
  3. My fear for the U.S. is... by gg3po · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The government will use bloggers' desire to be taken seriously as real journalists as an excuse to apply the same kind of censorship the FCC effectively has doled out for some time to the traditional media.

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    1. Re:My fear for the U.S. is... by Black+Tezcatlipoca · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The government will use bloggers' desire to be taken seriously as real journalists as an excuse to apply the same kind of censorship the FCC effectively has doled out for some time to the traditional media.

      No they wont, blogs are too useful for astroturfing.

  4. Whittler's Mudder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FTFA: "As more and more governments start restricting what their citizens can say online, those of us who live in relatively open societies need to decide what to do."

    And what of those of us who live in relatively open societies where our governments, more and more, are restricting what we can say online?

    Duck and cover, perhaps.

  5. Does information want to be free? Do you? by shanen · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's a deliberate juxtaposition because these issues are all so tightly related. For example, if information about the abuses of power was freely available, it would often be more difficult to abuse it. On the other hand, if our personal information was more freely available, it could often be used against us. We value our own privacy, but that's essentially the same as saying we want the right of censorship over who knows our personal information. Meanwhile BushCo wants to keep private such things as how the energy policy was created and how and when the decision was made to take out Saddam...

    Anyway, my own primary interest is at the personal side of things. I think we need to establish some kind of defensive perimeter around our personal information, or the very notion of privacy will soon be non-existant. That will become just another power used against each of us.

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    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  6. Re:Those who built it by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My guess is that a lot of them have drunk the punch, so to to speak. They probably really do believe that all of those external sites extolling the virtues of freedom and democracy really are bad, and so they probably enjoy the challenge of blocking them. Intelligent and educated doesn't always imply open-minded and tolerant; it just ups the odds.

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    If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
  7. Re:Those who built it by MourningBlade · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So what's in it for them? How do they feel about what they do? Anyone have a link to any information about them?

    You know how you get someone to implement a censorship system for you? You don't hire mean and cruel people, you get a few people who want to do good. Then you set up draconian punishments for violations of speech and thought codes.

    Then (and this is the magic ingredient), you tell these people you've hired that their job is to keep people from getting in trouble by preventing the people from violating the speech and thought codes.

    Pretty easy, really, and you put people in "helping mode." What's the old quote about "the tyrant may rest, but those who are act for your own good are tireless in their efforts." These people almost definitely believe that they are helping people - saving them from worse punishment.

    And they're probably frustrated by how hard people try to prevent them from doing their job.

  8. Geekspeak by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The best small step you can do to "fight censorship" is to help others communicate. Sure, geeks are known for limited interpersonal skills. But we commune with machines like brothers. And these machines are the engines for widespread personal communication. Getting more people around the US, around the world, to communicate more, and more effectively, harnesses the unbeatable power of expression. Censors benefit from centralized communication bottlenecks; geeks help people route around them. Slashdotters are part of a global mass movement of people helping each other communicate, which trumps the censors every time. I'm proud of you :).

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    make install -not war