Political Issues: Internet Censorship

Summary

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. A government can try to prevent its citizens from viewing these even if it has no control over the websites themselves.

Filtering can be based on a blacklist or be dynamic. In the case of a blacklist, that list is usually not published. The list may be produced manually or automatically.

Barring total control on Internet-connected computers, such as in North Korea, total censorship of information on the Internet is very difficult (or impossible) to achieve due to the underlying distributed technology of the Internet. Pseudonymity and data havens (such as Freenet) allow unconditional free speech, as the technology guarantees that material cannot be removed and the author of any information is impossible to link to a physical identity or organization.

External Links to Anti Internet Censorship Issues

Internet Censorship: Law & policy around the world
https://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Censor/cens3.html

This report contains information on government policy and/or laws regarding Internet censorship in various countries around the world. Information herein was compiled by EFA in March 2002 in response to a request by the Chair of the NSW Standing Committee on Social Issues for information on whether or not other countries have Internet censorship laws similar to Schedule 2 of the NSW Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Amendment Bill 2001. (For detailed information about this Bill, see the NSW Internet Censorship Bill section of EFA’s web site).

Amnesty International
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/censorship-and-free-speech/internet-censorship

Freedom of Expression and the Internet Technology. In the last few decades, it has permanently altered the way we communicate and live. From the Internet to the iPad, advancements in technology have given immediate access to information with the push of a button.

Internet Censorship and Control
https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/pubrelease/internet-control/
In the following collection, published as an open access collection here and as well in a special issue of IEEE Internet Computing, we present five peer reviewed papers on the topic of Internet censorship and control.

Anti Internet Censorship – … GV Advocacy: Toward a Global anti-censorship Network …. and highlighted several anti-censorship campaigns, reports of Internet censorship, …

Anti Internet Censorship – Leading Provider of Internet Privacy and Anti-censorship Technologies and Products Homepage of GTunnel, the software for Internet Privacy and Human Rights …

External Links to Pro Internet Censorship Issues

Pro Internet Censorship – … First of all, Mike Fitzsimon responded to a pro-censorship article in the … For those who are campaigning against the internet censorship, …

Pro Internet Censorship – We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results … Internet AntiVirus Pro is rogue anti-virus software that is uses fake scans …

External Links to Non Partisan Censorship Issues

Non Partisan Internet Censorship – American Civil Liberties Union…

Non Partisan Internet Censorship – Publishes newsletters, Internet Guidebooks and other documents, … A nonpartisan coalition of consumer, civil liberties, educational, family, library, …. Coalition of human rights, privacy, anti-censorship and cyberliberties groups. …

REFERENCES

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censors