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 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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Give me a little censorship in the States any day over Quebec's crazy-ass "cultural heritage" laws. I never have to sorry about being thrown in prison in the U.S. because I dare to put up a sign in the wrong language, or dare to piss off some crazy French nationalist by suggesting that England may not be so bad.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
"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
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.
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.
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".
Its hard to represent negative numbers in this sort of graph.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Half true. Copyright isn't intended as a tool of censorship - it isn't to stop people getting access to information, but to make sure they pay for it. Generally if a copyright holder is trying to stop you downloading a movie off the internet, they really do want you to see it - but through their own approved channel.
That said, it can certainly be abused for censorship, and frequently is. But that isn't the purpose of it. Just an incidental effect.
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.
US isn't some magical place where all these problems don't exist - they just don't exist for the english population.
I live in San Jose, California. It is very common to see business signs ONLY in Spanish, Chinese, or Vietnamese. There are no laws requiring businesses to accommodate English speakers. Nor should there be. The USA is not Quebec.