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

[truthsearch]

Peter: Oh, Lois, you are so full of (BEEP)! WHAT?! Now I can't say (BEEP) in my own (BEEP)ing house?! Great, Lois. Just (BEEP)in' great. You know, you're lucky you're good at (BEEP) my (BEEP) or I'd never put up with ya. You know what I'm talking about, when you (BEEP) lubed-up (BEEP) toothpaste in my (BEEP) while you (BEEP) on a cherry (BEEP) Episcopalian (BEEP) extension cord (BEEP) wetness (BEEP) with a parking ticket. That is the best!

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

XXXX XXXX!

[Anonymous Coward]

Xxxx xxx xxxx? xxxx x xx x xx xx xxx xx! xxxx xxx ...

xxxx xxxx Xxxxxxxx!

xxx... xxx!

XX XXX XXX XXXX XXXXX!!!!!!X!X!X!XXX

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".

Re:you can't stop me

[truthsearch]

What's wrong with blumpkin? It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Uh oh

[eviloverlordx]

I was just reading about *CENSORED* on the *CENSORED*, when all of a sudden some guys *CENSORED* into my apartment and started *CENSORED* my stuff and *CENSORED* my wife.

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.

It's necessary.

[Seumas]

You can't protect society without controlling society. You can't control society without controlling information. In the land of ignorance, the informed man is king. True democracies don't have kings. Information is communism. Ignorance is patriotic. Oh shit, American Idol is on -- gotta go!

This is good news

[Anonymous Coward]

As a citizen of the People's Republic of China, I can only see this as good news. It is heartening to see that the people of the world are outgrowing their childish attachment to outdated notions like "freedom" and "individualism" and realizing that future progress of humanity depends on subordination of individual drives to the good of harmonious society and beneficial development of the motherland.

At this time in history, people all over the world are waking up to the damage that capitalism and "Democracy" have brought to the world. America and Europe and their nineteenth-century ideas of "rights" and "freedom" have brought little else but war, genocide, terrorism, environmental devastation, immoral depravity, exploitation, and chaos.

Small wonder that a recent Beijing Star poll shows that People's Republic of China is the most respected nation on earth. We move forward together harmoniously into twenty-first century, the century of Communism.

Gee...

[Otter]

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

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.

This is unsurprising

[Hobbs0]

Look into the freedom of speech (and press, and related) laws in the countries mentioned in TFA. Those are countries which prohibit (at least some forms of) government protesting, restrict television airwaves, and are generally unfriendly in the freedom of information department anyway. Why should the internet be any different?

Not somebody else's problem

[linvir]

Web censorship is not something that only happens halfway around the world in countries like Uzkbekistan and Burma. If you're from the UK, meet Cleanfeed, a soon-to-be compulsory system for blocking "illegal" content. Only a select group of secretive internet wizards know how it works, and a circle of elders living deep in the mountains are in charge of deciding exactly what is and isn't "illegal content". Not everybody runs it just yet, but its effects are already being felt.

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.

Proud to be an American

[Joebert]

The U.S. is like the slutty girl down the street that nobodys mom wants them talking to.

Re:Proud to be an American

[R2.0]

Yeah - we think we're hot shit, but everyone else's Mom and Dad thinks we are vulgar and violent.

And when they aren't looking, all their kids try to get inside us, sometimes when we don't want it, but we let it happen anyway 'cause it feels so good.