Web Censorship on the Increase

mid-devonian writes "Close on the heels of the temporary blocking of YouTube by a Turkish judge, a group of academics has published research showing that Web censorship is on the increase worldwide. As many as two dozen countries are blocking content using a variety of techniques. Distressingly, the most censor-heavy countries (which includes China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Burma and Uzbekistan) seem to be passing on their technologically sophisticated techniques to other areas of the world. 'New censorship techniques include the periodic barring of complete applications, such as China's block on Wikipedia or Pakistan's ban on Google's blogging service, and the use of more advanced technologies such as 'keyword filtering', which is used to track down material by identifying sensitive words.'"

Comments

uh oh

[wizardforce]

let us hope this doesn't spread- Fahrenheit 451 on the web

Re:uh oh

[Original Replica]

That's why I'm an anarchist

I appreciate your rejection of all governments as self feeding power machines, but even en masse anarchists will not help the ills of society. Largely because anarchists are not very organized, but also because government is a necessary evil. Necessary if for nothing else to free us from more oppressive governments. So I ask you as your fellow countryman, to get personally involved in politics. No revolution was won by apathy. (pun only partially intended)

From Common Sense

government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

http://www.bartleby.com/133/1.html

you can't stop me

[User 956]

and the use of more advanced technologies such as 'keyword filtering', which is used to track down material by identifying sensitive words.

As the FCC has found out, people will just make up new words, that are worse than the old words. Like "Blumpkin".

government

[gravesb]

Government, please stay off of the Internet. Freedom of speech involves some risk. Let the people choose if they take that risk or not, but if you take it from us, you take our freedom as well.

Re:government

[daveschroeder]

The countries censoring the internet in this way don't want people to have free speech or those freedoms you speak of.

Re:Gee...

[drinkypoo]

It's too bad we didn't turn the Internet over to the UN like you guys all wanted...

Which UN? The one that continually turns a blind eye to human rights violations until their complicity shows up in the news? The one that can't do anything without the US' say-so? I fail to see how that would be useful.

well, yeah...

[PFI_Optix]

More people than ever are using the internet. This just in: more internet users than ever are censored.

Should we be surprised here? I'm not.