Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Governmental Censorship Derails Internet Promise
byThe borderless Internet may have been the goal, but government interference into the free flow of information has put serious restrictions on the liberating effect that might have had on culture and society. The Open Net Initiative, sponsored by the University of Toronto, Harvard and Cambridge Universities, is focusing its research on what individual governments are doing to control information flow, and the impact this has had on politics, human rights, state sovereignty and law.
The results thus far haven’t been promising. Not only have a variety of countries — Iran, Singapore, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Bahrain, China and the United Arab Emirates — been identified as using under-handed tactics to control Internet information, but a number of U.S.-based companies have been instrumental in helping dictatorships choke off information. Included in the arsenal of censorship are programs that present users with “File not found,” or other technical excuses when pages are actually blocked. The Tunisian government has been accused by ONI of Internet to block information from political opponents and human rights groups.
In addition to ONI’s work to expose government censorship, Reporters Without Borders have raised the alert on companies that are making a buck off these repressive tactics.
With the recent revelation that the Bush administration has been spying on U.S. citizens without first obtaining court orders makes one wonder what ONI will find when it turns its attention to the United States.
