Slashdot Mirror
A Horrifying Interactive Map of Global Internet Censorship
An anonymous reader writes "Imagine a world where the book burners had won. A world where information is filtered and must be approved by governments before it can be accessed by their citizens. A world where people are held down and kept in line by oppressive regimes that restrict the free flow of information and bombard citizens with government-approved messages. Now stop imagining, because this horrifying world already exists..."
[censored]
The countries not polled by this?
Like Canada? What's going on there? Is it free?
The summary links to an article which has a link in it to the map which doesn't load.
What a waste of space. Why is this on Slashdot? Find a reliable source, and then post it.
North Korea should be very NOT FREE.
The map's already been Slashdotted. Yet another type of censorship.
Truthy database.
Streaming Twitter data is acquired in real-time from the 'Gardenhose'. We match all tweets against a set of keywords to exclude tweets unlikely to contain political discussion, and extract all memes
Yeah, what "memes" would the government want to pay millions of dollars to extract? I'm sure "hate speech" and "terrurusm" are in the mix.
Looks like they censored themselves.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
United States is shown as:
VIOLATIONS OF USER RIGHTS 12/40
FREEDOM ON THE NET 17/100
OBSTACLES TO ACCESS 4/25
LIMITS ON CONTENT 1/35
But they don't say what these things are and which ones are violated. Without the context and citations the results are meaningless -- I could create the same thing in Paint.
Would the map be completely red if combined with the 'does wholesale surveilance' data?
It links to an article that wants you to click a lot more before you ever get to any map. What the hell ever happened to accessing information on the web, as opposed to clicking just on a bunch of ads?
Imagine a world where global advertising has eliminated all information, never mind censorship. That world has already happened.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Lame, lame and lame. It's been going on for years and just because your country doesn't ascribe to censorship they're most likely tracking your activities surreptitiously. While it was a lofty goal to have an Internet free from Censors, you're not going to get that to happen in every place all the time. There was once a trial in Canada over a very serious crime there was some testimony that was extremely sensitive involving the crime. The judge in the case issued a gag order including that of all Canadian press organizations not to publish details about it. That didn't of course apply to US journalists covering the trial who published the information in the US. This led to Canadian border agents seizing US newspapers because of the publication of the information. The point here is that some view censorship as beneficial in certain cases while others view it with disdain. For example, this week I saw a video of a beheading. Now after watching it I probably wish that somebody had filtered that for me.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
... is the cornerstone of decadence.
It actually started with the burning of the great library of Alexandria and the murder of Hypathia at the start of an era we call the Dark Ages when Christianity was born. Centuries of a murderous, and genocidal campaign was untaken to erase specific information from human knowledge and history.
I find it odd to read an article shared on /. starting with "Imagine a world where the book burners had won."
Why no info on Canada? What are they hiding from us!
So the document on government censorship of the internet appears to be censored :o I smell a government conspiracy!
What's the "horrifying" part?
Nothing here we don't already know.
Is Slashdot now using the HuffPo style of clickbait headlines?
I live in the Netherlands and I can't imagine that the creator of this map could not get any information on our country (it's greyed out). We even have net neutrality laws. I don't think the creator of this map put in a whole lot of effort and this diminishes my trust in the values allocated to other countries.
I tried viewing this site from my work, and the map was replaced by my corporate 'Ad Blocked' image.
"most important thing you’ll see today" ... "this horrifying world already exists" ... other news bits on bgw: "awesome iPhone apps..." ... "Man suffers burns when OnePlus One explodes in his back pocket"
The internet is a source of as much mis-information as it is information. In that you are censored with every click. What is truly horrifying is that some think this is horrifying. Back away from the tech for a few weeks.
While I would most definitely have to find a new profession, I view a world without the internet as refreshing and may go so far as to call it the beginnings of a utopia.
A world where people are held down and kept in line by oppressive regimes that restrict the free flow of information and bombard citizens with government-approved messages. Now stop imagining, because this horrifying world already exists..."
There are more things horrifying in this world than Internet censorship. It is an important topic, but it is one that deserve appropriate discussion, not geek uber-hoopla. So please spare us from the unnecessary histrionics.
If you need to rely on histrionics to make your point, then your point is irrelevant, or you are an idiot who cannot communicate properly, or a cheap entertainer, or an attention whore. Or a combination of them all.
The State of Israel is ignored on this map despite its low 96th spot on the World Freedom Press Index of 2014 which would suggest a high degree of censorship!
http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php
Based on how little world or local news of importance is available through online news outlets North America should be colored crimson red.
There are all sorts of reputable news outlets in North America covering world news well. Also, sites outside of North America are accessible (not blocked) from North America.
"Imagine a world in which the book burners had won"
Please. "Horrifying"?
The OP pimps itself breathlessly as "This interactive map of global Internet censorship is the most important thing youâ(TM)ll see today" - yes, it's about as important (and surprising) as the sun coming up in the East.
The facts are that
a) the ubiquitous availability of information is a relatively new thing. Public libraries didn't even really exist until the latter 19th/E20th centuries. The internet is less than a generation old.
b) governments and power structures have controlled such information throughout the span of human history.
The panicked tone of the article implies that this is worse than ever, which is patently histrionic bullshit. Even in these heavily censored countries, these people have access to information that they NEVER would have had before.
I'm not even 100% convinced that the ideal of universal access to information is an unalloyed good. Certainly, from the POV of a midwestern, middle class educated individual I *assume* that the net result of having more information is beneficial - but I can certainly see that there are negative aspects to "everything open", such as people who clearly don't understand basic science drawing conclusions from unfiltered scientific data. Or statistics? How many people are easily manipulated by presentations of statistics that they don't even understand? Again, my gut tells me that the "net" is a benefit, but I can't say I'm certain.
Again, as a small-l liberal, I believe that information and communication is probably good in the long run; even the small trickles of illumination sneaking into those heavily censored places suggests to me that their ability to keep their people in ignorance will eventually expire. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually.
A glass 95% empty is still a crapton better than no glass at all.
-Styopa
The State of Israel is ignored on this map despite its low 96th spot on the World Freedom Press Index of 2014 which would suggest a high degree of censorship! http://rsf.org/index2014/en-in...
My country it's white, but there's a bunch of censored sites and even complete ip ranges are banned and can't be accessed without a VPN.
So, map is not that reliable
Attempting to access the link from the article froze my Mac: That is censorship.
Hmmmm.
Come the revolution, the Bourgeois, Capitalistic, "A PARKING STICKER HOLDERS", will be first against the wall!
Mass-media was Ãinventedà as a tool for propaganda, not as a public service, let's not fool ourselves.
They will do everything in their power to not let it get diverted to a real information source.
The internet was not invented for mass media
Come the revolution, the Bourgeois, Capitalistic, "A PARKING STICKER HOLDERS", will be first against the wall!
I know, tell me about it! I couldn't even get my air conditioning to stop pumping blissfully cool air over my body as I lay on my 500ct egyptian cotton sheets this morning, sipping a mocha latte from Starbucks. I was in grave danger of having to break a sweat walking down to the nearest unencrypted public wifi where I could be comfortable.
It's like, the people of the world don't even CARE about the plight of us poor north americans.
These first world problems are a bitch, I tell ya.
I liked it better when the headline didn't tell me how I was supposed to feel.
I thinkit was abd firefox plugin
Yup. The issue is that people just don't care.
the question is, does my hoodie make me look fat
Takes some seriously Orwellian doublethink to pretend copyright enforcement isn't censorship.
I think this is the result of a very narrow view point when making the map. They seem to only care about censorship by the state through direct laws. Increasingly in the US, and so some extent the rest of the western world, it is not government which restricts our rights but companies. They need to make a second map showing countries where companies have used laws to force, or bully, people into being censored through the threat of massive financial penalties.
It is every citizen's civic duty to step up and hold elected officials responsible and accountable. Civil servants want to play master to all except with big money interests. Make them earn their fat salary.
Governments don't do that much for internet censorship. The more dramatic censors are the corporate players who are doing everything they can to prevent information from getting out that can harm them.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Here's a fix: go to google news and pick news for country from/near region you're interested in then google translate articles that are not in English.
Disinformation is what mad US spend trillions of dollars for war efforts with little ROI.
History is written by the victors.
It actually started with the burning of the great library of Alexandria and the murder of Hypathia at the start of an era we call the Dark Ages when Christianity was born.
Although there is a mythology of the burning of the Library at Alexandria, the library may have suffered several fires or acts of destruction over many years. Possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria include a fire set by Julius Caesar in 48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in the A.D. 270s, the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in A.D. 391, and the decree of the second caliph Omar ibn Al-khattab in A.D. 640.
It's contents were largely lost during the taking of the city by the Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270-275), who was suppressing a revolt by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. During the course of the fighting, the areas of the city in which the main library was located were damaged. Some sources claim that the smaller library located at the Serapeum survived, though Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of the library in the Serapeum temple as a thing of the past, destroyed when Caesar sacked Alexandria.
Library of Alexandria
According to the only contemporary source, Hypatia was murdered [370 AD] by a Christian mob after being accused of exacerbating a conflict between two prominent figures in Alexandria: the governor Orestes and the Bishop of Alexandria. Kathleen Wider proposes that the murder of Hypatia marked the end of Classical antiquity, and Stephen Greenblatt observes that her murder "effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life". On the other hand, Maria Dzielska and Christian Wildberg note that Hellenistic philosophy continued to flourish in the 5th and 6th centuries, and perhaps until the age of Justinian.
Hypatia
Under the definition you suggest, any WTO member recognizing the legal theory of aiding and abetting infringement would be "partly free".
It's called China and Iran.
Ah yes, that's right. There were absolutely no voices of criticism or opposition to all that "disinformation," because the US government brutally cracked down on protests and citizens.
I remember the Zucotti Square massacre as if it was only yesterday! Those brave heroes died at the hands of a repressive government bent on dominating and controlling all aspects of thought and information that citizens are exposed to.
Seriously, bro - there is a WORLD of difference between "some people in power made misleading statements and the press reported on them" and "the government brutally suppresses any dissenting speech or writing using violence, intimidation, and secret thought police."
Takes some seriously Orwellian doublethink to pretend copyright enforcement isn't censorship.
If copyright issues are your biggest complaint, you have a pretty good life. I am betting you have electricity, running water, and toilets, things much of the "free world" doesn't have, much less relative freedom of speech. You simply have no idea what life is like outside your environment. Please do travel outside your local country. Hopefully, it will be an eye-opener (and heart-opener) for you.
The statistics for the UK from the website:
And yet on the map graphics it's shown as a bright white 'Free', not 'Partly Free'.
Not quite, mate.
I can't help but point out two observations I've made reading today's Slashdot headlines: (1) There is a post accusing the Kochs of being astroturf for spending money to oppose Net Neutrality (2) This map shows the US as one of the few "free" uses of Internet around the world. Maybe giving due attention to those who express reservations about heavier regulation on the Net is better than slandering them. That's just a thought I'd like to post here on the free and open Internet.
This dystopia thing is not so bad. All I have to do is shut up and keep clicking. Beats the hell out of tilling the earth.
They're protecting privacy by 'losing' all those emails.
It doesn't load for me. I guess that means the USA is on the map.
X is worse than Y != Y is not bad. "first world problems" is a phrase used by fools who don't understand simple logic. Problems are problems, no matter how small.
That better?
City Protective Services (CPS) law enforcement officer Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) lives a quiet, normal life with her husband and son in 2077-era Vancouver. Under the corporatocratic and oligarchic dystopia of the North American Union and its "Corporate Congress", life goes on in apparent freedom under a technologically-advanced high-surveillance police state.
When a group of self-proclaimed freedom fighters known as "Liber8" escape execution by fleeing to the year 2012, Kiera is involuntarily transported with them into the past. Joining with Detective Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster) and the Vancouver Police Department, and enlisting the help of teen computer genius Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen), Kiera works to track down and thwart Edouard Kagame (Tony Amendola) and his followers in the present day while concealing her identity as a time-traveler from the future.
we all know how certain places censor everything. This is why the MPAA and RIAA need to put on a leash at the least because that story above is our future if we don't. And we need no map of the dark censor laden areas of the world to do it.
Hmmm, so we are comparing Fiji to Ferguson, Missouri and ISIS? Sounds like it.
England is in white despite arresting people for posting unpopular but otherwise benign posts on twitter. And if I recall one incident they didn't even use any personal identifying information. Same can be said for many western countries.
Listen goy boy, you have a problem with us Hebs?
We control YOUR government boy.
We know who you are, through our flunky the NSA.
Expect the brown shirt highway patrol, sorry I mean stormtrooper, to see his police computer to light up like a Christmas tree the next time your license plate is scanned by the traffic camera...boy.
Yes I chose to watch it and now after watching it I think that there should have been some responsibility taken to remove it.
Or, you could take some responsibility for the bad choice you made. Nobody put a gun to your head and forced you to watch it. Your complaint is the equivalent of a child who wants to ban all use of fire after having burnt himself despite being warned of its dangers.
I also like the way you passed the buck to that mythical "somebody" who you say should have done something about the video. Why don't you do something about it yourself? Besides raging on the internet?
It's shocking how little you value your freedom of choice. Trading away your right to access information (note- I said access, you can always choose not to exercise that right by not clicking on the video) in return for the warm safety blanket of censorship protecting you from discomfort.
And best of all, because of your own personal discomfort, you feel that it is all right to enforce the same restrictive censorship on others who may not be as weak stomached as you, and to strip them of their freedom of choice.
just take a look at australia completely free access. the same for UK.