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US Tests System To Evade Foreign Web Censorship
D1gital_Prob3 excerpts from a Reuters story that says "The US government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet. The 'feed over email' (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data via technology that evades web-screening protocols of restrictive regimes, said Ken Berman, head of IT at the US government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is testing the system. The news feeds are sent through email accounts including those operated by Google, Microsoft's Hotmail, and Yahoo. 'We have people testing it in China and Iran,' said Berman, whose agency runs Voice of America. He provided few details on the new system, which is in the early stages of testing. He said some secrecy was important to avoid detection by the two governments."
I am sure our Australian friends can make good use of this too in the near future...
Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
Your assuming they aren't just using to let them access US Gov approved news, as opposed to the China/Iran Gov approved news they have now.
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
Exactly the US government's interest is in not in that they get news, but the news that they will get.
basically doing nothing but accusing the usa of hypocrisy
folks, the most radical most liberal most openminded society you could ever imagine will have some sort of censorship of SOMETHING. pedophilia, for example
at that point, would it be valid to compare such a hypothetical state to a country that punishes people harshly merely for expressing a political opinion?
according to some of you, it is
the usa is imperfect. the usa does evil in the world. let me repeat: the usa is imperfect. the usa does evil in the world. have i sufficiently innoculated myself yet in some of your minds of being a blind ultranationalist american yet? can i still criticize you without getting that ridiculous charge? then good, here goes: to compare what the usa censors with what iran and china censors is ignorance on your part
as an example: plenty of you in the usa, critical of the usa, are freely posting a political attitude critical of the usa from within the usa, on american servers. you do realize that in some countries like gee, i dunno, china and iran maybe? that that gets monitored, and if it bothers someone, you get punished, perhaps harshly if you get indignant? can you imagine that in the usa? of course not, that's why you freely post. in china or iran, none of you would be bravely fighting for the assumed status quo of freedom implicit in your comments that you see as ideal, no, you'd be meekly bowed in fear, and would say nothing critical of the government. because you don't speak from nobility, you speak from a position of crass jackass ignorance
here is an objective fact: your freedom of expression in the usa is vastly, by orders of magnitude, superior to that in china and iran. that is an OBJECTIVE FACT. what does that fact mean to you? do you give it any value? are you thankful for it any way? or do you find that the usa is imperfect in its policies, therefore, i will mouth off about the usa being the equivalent of the worst censoring authoritarian governments on the globe. does that sound intellectually honest to you?
but that's ok by me, that's what freedom of expression leads to: lots of loud dumb idiots mouthing off. its a small price to pay to live in a free society that i cherish, and i accept all of your ignorance, even though i feel compelled to smack your ignorance down
here's a magic word for you to consider next time: "scale". the scale and reach of the censorship involved. what does that concept mean to you? here's an example question question ot consider the concept of "scale" in relation to censorship: does censorship of pedophilia have the same impact on society, the same meaning, as censorship of political opinion?
ruminate on the concept. then open your mouth
you may now accuse me of being a dick cheney cock sucking neocon. since obviously, if i criticize your words, i must be the worst kind of american ultranationalist, right? not just some neutral guy asking for a little intellectual honesty on your part, right?
zzz
so predictable and ignorant. god i hope the lot of you are 13 years old. its the only way your ignorance is excusable
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yes, free speech does sometimes mean you have to put up with people acting like douches. Freedom of speech is a double edged sword - you have to make all speech free, even if it is vile, disgusting, ignorant speech - because odds are someone else thinks what you say is vile, disgusting and ignorant. Supporting "Free Speech Zones" means you also support "Restricted Speech Zones" which should not exist in the US. (With the obvious exceptions of the shouting "fire" in the theater, yelling "bomb" at the airport, etc.) But no political speech should ever be silenced.
"But this one goes to 11!"