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  • Internet crackdown coming?

    Egypt's internet shutdown is just the tip of the iceberg and a global net crackdown is inevitable, leading internet experts say.


    Global net crackdown to shatter 'utopian' internet: experts
    Ben Grubb
    February 4, 2011 - 1:24PM
    Egypt's internet shutdown is just the tip of the iceberg and a global net crackdown is inevitable, leading internet experts say.
    Already the US has moved to implement an internet "kill switch", which would allow the President in a "cyber emergency" to shut down certain parts of the internet it considers "critical infrastructure", whilst the Australian government has previously sought to crackdown on the internet by censoring "refused classification" material.
    Speaking to this website, Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and author of The Master Switch, said the days of a utopian internet were numbered.
    He said Egypt had proven how it was possible to shut out its citizens from the net and that we should expect other governments to begin clamping down on it.
    "[The internet is] probably going to go – unless something happens – towards a future more like other media, which is more closed and more controlled unless there is an uprising," he said when asked about the future of the internet in an interview with this website. "And I think Egypt, I think the kill switch Act [and] I think some of the Australian proposals are going all in that direction."
    There was a tendency, he said, for media to start open and then become closed. "Early stages of them are often very utopian, open, competitive - they [then] tend to evolve towards a more monopolised and sometimes government-controlled state and I believe the internet is going in that direction".
    It was "possible to avert" but "if history is any guide, that is where we are going".
    One of Australia's top communications experts, University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, agreed.
    "To some extent all governments want to retain control of all societal functions and the internet is no different than any other kind of infrastructure and vital infrastructure that we have," he said. "So I think it is natural for governments to look in that direction".
    But he said that the internet should not be seen as having the "same fundamental prerequisites or structure as ... radio and TV because it is a true, borderless international instrument which has to deal with a certain degree of local legislation and ruling as well as international convention".
    Anti-censorship campaigner Irene Graham, who runs the website libertus.net, which tracks the state of censorship in Australia, said governments cracking down on the internet depended on "what the state of democracy is in a particular country".
    Graham didn't believe, however, that Australia's internet would become as regulated as suggested by Wu because government here was "paying a lot more attention to public opinion than what occurs in other types of countries", referring to the federal government relegating its net filter plan to "review after review".
    Asked this week whether the Australian government could shut down the internet in this country or implement "kill switch" legislation similar to the US, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he did not believe this was possible.
    "Australia's a vibrant democracy, where the government doesn't control the internet," he said, seemingly ignoring his own government's internet filtering plan.
    "I don't think we have any of these powers — that we could pass a law to make ISP services turn off when we want them to? I don't think we have that power now, and I don't think anyone's seeking it."

  • #2
    Not in the Western World.
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
    "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
    He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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    • #3
      I hope not but censorship might start with filtering kiddy porn, then hate sites and then go on to "filtering offensive material".

      Who gets to define "offensive" is the scary bit. Oh, and who defines "hate".

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      • #4
        I can understand kiddy porn. After that, it's a Free Speech issue and I don't see it happening.
        Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
        "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
        He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

        Comment


        • #5
          I hope your last post never gets taken out of context Sloww
          Speaking of Erith:

          "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

          Comment


          • #6
            In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

            Comment


            • #7
              I don't need the internet anymore... I got WiFi!

              Monkey!!!

              Comment


              • #8
                This is what b etor has been waiting for
                With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

                Steven Weinberg

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                • #9
                  question is who will win Crackers (hackers), or Crackdown (megacorps). Let the cyberpunk war begin!
                  "Life is the only RPG you'll ever play, The religious want to be one with the moderator, the scientists want to hack the game, and the gamers want to do both."

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