Internet Censorship

What is Internet Censorship

• Control or suppression of publishing or accessing information on the Internet

• Legal issues– Moral – Military– Political– Religious – Corporate

How long has it been around

• Censorship has been around for many hundred years now. China and Israel used it in the 400's as a legitimate way to retain moral and political power.

• It was even around during Ancient Roman times in 440 BC. Socrates was sentenced to drink poison in 399 BC because he talked about the existence of other divinities.

• Since those times, censorship has played a very important role in history and is currently doing the same.

Internet Censorship

• Nominally censored– United States, United Kingdom, France, India

• Illegal sites• Obscene content (i.e. pornography, graphic violence)• Rebel sites

• Heavily Censored– Republic of China

• Tibetan independence, Taiwan independence, blog sites, certain international news sources

– Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, North Korea• Small percentage have access to internet which is heavily regulated

by the government

Internet Censorship Around The World

No CensorshipSome CensorshipUnder SurveillanceInternet Black Holes (most heavily censored)

Criticisms

• Does it violate one’s individual rights?• Does censoring certain material in fact provide

an incentive for people to access that censored material?

• Does censoring better society?• Can censorship be associated with

communism, the very type of government we try to avoid?

Opinions

• Censorship is needed to a certain extant– Obscene material– Pornography

• As long as human rights aren’t violated– Blogs– Information