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Censorship is Changing the Face of the Internet

Lucas123 writes "Amnesty International is warning that the Internet "could change beyond all recognition" because state-sponsored censorship has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments that apply mandated net filtering, and because companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have remained complicit, according to a BBC story. '"More and more governments are realising the utility of controlling what people see online and major internet companies, in an attempt to expand their markets, are colluding in these attempts,"' said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director."

12 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. OMG! They got slashdot!!!! by mcrbids · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nothing to see here. Move along

    Is there *REALLY* nothing here, or has this been (gasp!) censored?

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    1. Re:OMG! They got slashdot!!!! by maxume · · Score: 2, Funny

      The day before slashdot closes down, you should check back and see if your comment has been edited.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  2. Depends on who you hear it from. by ThisIsForReal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, according to the BBC report, censorship is spreading. According to my state-run newspaper, everything is just fine, and, wait a second, it says here I should just move right along.

    --
    -THE END-
  3. Re:When will we pay for what we see? by cyanyde · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now all we need to do is find neo!

  4. Re:Make your own internet by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    HI! I'm a tax payer whose taxes went into creating the internet. Get the fuck off our internet.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. changing face of the internet by ElephanTS · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes. It used to be this :-) now it's this :(

    --
    spoonerize "magic trackpad"
    1. Re:changing face of the internet by tobias.sargeant · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dude! Someone censored your nose!

  6. Re:Not in the United States... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Google only censors conservative politics. The porno and Guantanamo stuff will be fine. I bet Al Qaeda stuff is even safe.

  7. Re:Who's surprised here? by martinX · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a democratic republic because you get to vote for the prick you're going to hate in 4 years.

    --
    When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
  8. Re:Internet is Part of a Tripod of Information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seriously, how arrogant can a person get?

    I don't know; keep trying.

  9. OMG no freedom!!!11!!!! by Shihar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah man, the system is like totally broken. It is like we don't have any freedom of speech any more. Damn that yeasty little cunt Bush. He is by far the worst mother fucking president ever to set his a clove footed hoof into the oval office. He is a worthless, pig shit, sheep fucking, donkey screwing, cow cunt licking, Nazi who eats babies and rapes more boys then a Catholic priest. How is it that we let these worthless, incompetent, corrupt tyrants that we call Democrats and Republicans steal away our freedom to criticize our piece of shit government without fear of retaliation!?

    Where oh where has our freedom of speech gone! I might as well just go pack my bags and movie to Cuba and are not as evil as the the United $tate$ of America.

    (this is +1 sarcastic for anyone who is extremely dense)

    We still have all the freedom we need to change the government. Just because the voting masses are too stupid to vote for competent leaders doesn't mean that we are somehow victims of tyrants. There are real victims out there who suffer under governments where the leader truly is a dictator and can only be removed through force of arms. There are nations out there without a shred of free press or even a sliver of free political speech. The US is not one of those nations. For the US to change its government, it only needs to vote for someone else. Hell, you don't even need a majority of the population as only half the population votes anyways. Simply getting 1/4 of the population to vote in a new direction would boot the current people out of power. Any failure of government is our failure. We have been blessed with a free and open Republic that easily switches leaders with a minimal amount of corruption. Failure to use this free Republic to remove defective leaders with the ballot box is a failure not of Bush, Carl Rove, Dick Chaney, Kerry, Clinton (either of them), or any other politician. The failure is completely in the hands of the people of the US. The people have the tools to get the information they need if they want to bother to inform themselves, and they have a perfectly workable method of tossing leaders out of power and replacing them with competent ones. Failure to use the tools at hand is not proof that the tools of the Republic are broken, but proof that the people are broken.

    If there is any failure in the system of the American Republic, it is that the system of government assumes that people are not lazy and apathetic idiots. The American Republic dumps all governmental power into the hands of the people and assumes they know what to do with it. If there is any failure of the American system, it is an overestimation of the competency of the general citizenry to make the minimal effort it takes to pick and vote for a decent leaders. There might be an excellent system out there that does not rely on a competent citizenry to choose leaders, but that system is not called a Democracy or Republic. We don't suffer from a lack of Democracy (or Republicanism, if you care to nitpick). We have it. We suffer from our own incompetence in using it.

    Hell, I personally think that it is telling that one of the least truly democratic (i.e. majority rules) pieces of our government is one of the most celebrated. We celebrate the Bill of Rights as a document that actively fights the forces of democracy by laying out things that not even the stupid majority can take away from individuals. Isn't it a little bit telling that we appreciate the Bill of Rights for its LACK of democracy? Democracy is only the answer if the majority is competent and trustworthy. We don't suffer from a lack of democracy. We suffer from a lack of an incompetent citizenry. Sadly, Democracy is alive and well in the US.

  10. Re:Nobody with talent works for govts by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2, Funny

    Look at history, rebels always win in the end,


    Damn straight, and may I say I'm glad I live in the Confederate States of America!

    Chris Mattern