A representative for freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that governments across the world are posing a threat to internet freedom. The governments in the US and UK, known for their willingness to blame their political partners for violating human rights and freedoms, have turned out to be particular tough in suppressing internet freedom.
Internet freedom has become one of the most acute challenges faced by nations worldwide. For some governments control over online content has become a kind of an obsession. The Arab Spring uprising and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have proved that the Internet has long become a very effective tool, even a weapon. The question is who uses it.
Top-ranking companies believe that the lack of censorship online will cost much not only to business but to state budgets, too. That is why the US Chamber of Commerce, partnered by Hollywood, was so persistent in lobbying the controversial SOPA draft legislation, which suggests expanding the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyright intellectual property. Although such measures look more than reasonable, experts in Internet security managed to prove that the SOPA bill was so poorly conceived that it could have even endanger technology progress, to say nothing about solving the problem of online piracy.
The OSCE says that one of major threats to internet freedom is inability of governments to adopt effective laws. Dunja Mijatovic, the representative for freedom of the media for the OSCE, thinks that governments are still trying to restrict or suppress internet freedom and censor online content.
Practically complete internet freedom is a matter of deep concerns for governments both in the developing countries, where opposition bloggers and journalists are often persecuted, and in the leading western democracies. All attempts to censor online content are usually described as measures taken as part of the war on cyberterrorism. The US and the UK have been particularly active in using this term to justify their tough online censorship.
Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington last month, Barack Obama said about new sanctions against Iran, Syria as well as governments and companies assisting them in using modern technology to watch people or block them from accessing the Internet. Last week the House of Representatives passed a cyber-security bill, CISPA, allowing the government to access web users` private data on suspicion of a cyber threat, a method already used in Iraq and Syria. Experts say this law will enable the government and private companies access private data of users having accounts on social networking sites.
Taking into consideration how popular these social networking sites are in the US, we may conclude that practically every citizen now can be watched without court sanction. It must be mentioned, however, that Obama himself spoke against CISPA, promising to veto the bill in case it is approved in Congress. Meanwhile, those who previously criticized the government`s attempts to censor online content, now have supported the initiative and even donated some money to the foundation led by the chief author of CISPA, Republican Congress Member Mike Rogers.
Not surprisingly, Internet freedom has become a No. 1 enemy for many governments willing to censor the World Wide Web equally with other media. If attempts made by politicians to censor the web prove successful, the Internet -as we have known it- could cease to exist.
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OSCE: US, UK Among Most Censored Countries
By News Division in Alternavox · May 2, 2012 · No comments
Tags: censorship, Commentary, Great Britain, internet, society, US, World
A representative for freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that governments across the world are posing a threat to internet freedom. The governments in the US and UK, known for their willingness to blame their political partners for violating human rights and freedoms, have turned out to be particular tough in suppressing internet freedom.
Internet freedom has become one of the most acute challenges faced by nations worldwide. For some governments control over online content has become a kind of an obsession. The Arab Spring uprising and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have proved that the Internet has long become a very effective tool, even a weapon. The question is who uses it.
Top-ranking companies believe that the lack of censorship online will cost much not only to business but to state budgets, too. That is why the US Chamber of Commerce, partnered by Hollywood, was so persistent in lobbying the controversial SOPA draft legislation, which suggests expanding the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyright intellectual property. Although such measures look more than reasonable, experts in Internet security managed to prove that the SOPA bill was so poorly conceived that it could have even endanger technology progress, to say nothing about solving the problem of online piracy.
The OSCE says that one of major threats to internet freedom is inability of governments to adopt effective laws. Dunja Mijatovic, the representative for freedom of the media for the OSCE, thinks that governments are still trying to restrict or suppress internet freedom and censor online content.
Practically complete internet freedom is a matter of deep concerns for governments both in the developing countries, where opposition bloggers and journalists are often persecuted, and in the leading western democracies. All attempts to censor online content are usually described as measures taken as part of the war on cyberterrorism. The US and the UK have been particularly active in using this term to justify their tough online censorship.
Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington last month, Barack Obama said about new sanctions against Iran, Syria as well as governments and companies assisting them in using modern technology to watch people or block them from accessing the Internet. Last week the House of Representatives passed a cyber-security bill, CISPA, allowing the government to access web users` private data on suspicion of a cyber threat, a method already used in Iraq and Syria. Experts say this law will enable the government and private companies access private data of users having accounts on social networking sites.
Taking into consideration how popular these social networking sites are in the US, we may conclude that practically every citizen now can be watched without court sanction. It must be mentioned, however, that Obama himself spoke against CISPA, promising to veto the bill in case it is approved in Congress. Meanwhile, those who previously criticized the government`s attempts to censor online content, now have supported the initiative and even donated some money to the foundation led by the chief author of CISPA, Republican Congress Member Mike Rogers.
Not surprisingly, Internet freedom has become a No. 1 enemy for many governments willing to censor the World Wide Web equally with other media. If attempts made by politicians to censor the web prove successful, the Internet -as we have known it- could cease to exist.
[wpsr_facebook][wpsr_retweet][wpsr_plusone][wpsr_sharethis]