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On Internet Censorship

From the inception of the Internet, as a tool for government communications,

there are those who try to censor the content displayed therein. Today, there are at

least thirteen countries that censor a major part of the Internet (List). Those

countries are not the only that censor the Internet; the majority of world powers at

least censor the Internet some, including the United States and twenty-four other

countries (Survey). As it stands, any government that values freedom of speech and

expression should not be putting resources into Internet censorship. The censorship

of the Internet violates our basic liberties as well as suppressing creativity and free

thought. Many companies and groups also aid governments in censoring the

Internet even though they say they intend to do no evil.

The blocking of content on the Internet by world government is a serious

violation of one’s most basic freedoms, the freedoms of free speech and expression.

In the United States, the Constitution protects its people from any of the threats of

oppressive governments. Specifically, the first amendment states that “Congress

shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” This

provision should put a stop to most forms of censorship, yet Internet censorship

prevails at least some. The Children’s Internet Protection Act is one of the first

pieces of legislation passed by the United States government to censor the Internet.

The law forces any school or library that accepts public funding to install programs

that block websites (Federal). These government funded censorship programs mean

to “protect” children from “offensive” and sexually explicit material, yet these

programs filter plenty of highly informational sites (Gauthier). Even without the
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government-imposed censorship of computer systems, the information people are

receiving is filtered based on the company they are using to search.

Private companies like Google, who do business with countries that censor

the Internet more, thoroughly seem to comply with such restrictions without much

of a fight. Even when search companies do attempt to fight black, the usual

resolutions end up with many pieces of information still blocked (Rosen). Many feel

that American companies that do business in countries like China are not doing

enough to resist the attempts by their governments to censor data. Some feel that

these companies are helping the oppression of free speech become easier. The

company Cisco has been criticized highly for these acts. A presentation for a

Chinese subcommittee at Cisco showed that the company was helping the Chinese

government with the “Golden Shield Project.” The project helps maintain China’s

“great firewall” and to help repress information about religious groups that the

Chinese government persecutes (Broache). Human rights activists are eagerly

preparing a “Code of Conduct” that addresses American companies on how to

operate over-seas. These activist groups are worried about companies becoming “…

complicit in this censorship of the Internet.” Human Rights Watch, an activist group,

brings to light the fact that some companies will even block access to material

before the government even requests it censored, hoping to stay on the

government’s good side. With the help of companies like Google, Yahoo, and Cisco,

the Chinese government has been able to censor information of the Internet, close

down sites of dissenters, and even arrest freedom fighters (Williams).

One of the most important parts of liberty is our ability to express our

thoughts; our ideas and opinions, without fear of punishment by our governing

bodies. Art is one of the many forms of expression that people attempt to censor.
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Many artists create works that people find offensive; these works tend to bring out a

message that many do not agree with or they think is obscene. While many works

of art push the borders of what people think is right and wrong, such as an art

exhibit in Mexico did when the artist allowed a dog to starve to death as part of the

display, as well as offending select groups, such as an American war exhibit that

required one to walk on an American flag to see it. Just because one disagrees with

what is shown does not mean that people should be allowed to ban the use of such

language, thought, or Ideas. Such a case happened when WorldNetDaily alerted the

FBI that Wikipedia was hosting child pornography. The offending image was an

album cover for the metal band “Scorpions” from their 1976 album “Virgin Killer.”

The album cover features a very young girl with no clothes in a suggestive pose,

even though there is no actually nudity. On other parts of Wikipedia, there are other

controversial pictures such as images on pages about strippers and the Dutch

Mohammed illustrations. Groups like Morality in Media are catching on to Wikipedia

now that it is becoming a renowned source for basic information. These groups try

to get “offensive” content removed from Wikipedia, but The Wikimedia Foundation’s

communications head says that censorship groups misunderstand how it defines

appropriate content. He says, “It isn’t a matter of view or taste. If it is notable, the

community tries to direct attention to that as a group and ask themselves if it’s an

appropriate topic.” Even so, the community and administrators usually include all

content except in the most extreme cases (Dye).

No matter the reason for censorship, be it to protect minors from “harmful”

material such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act does in America or the

banning of hate speech, pornography, and “adult” rated videogames in Australia

(Riley), or to satisfy an oppressive government and special interest groups,

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censorship of art, speech, and other forms of expression go against everything that

counties who “love liberty” stand for (Lewis). Whether we like it or not, the filtering

of content on the Internet is on the rise all over the world and unless the countries

of the West do away with such censorship, how may we hope to have freedom of

information and expression in a not-so-distant future?

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Works Cited

Broache, Anne. “Senators weigh new laws over China online censorship.” News Blog

– CNET News. 20 May 2008. CBS Interactive. 18 Apr. 2009

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9948331-7.html>.

Dye, Jessica. “Wikipedia Weighs Information Against Indecency.” EContent 31.6

(2008): 4-15. OmniFile Full Text Mega. H.W.Wilson. Columbia State Community

College, Lawrenceburg, TN. 19 Apr. 2009 <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com>.

Federal Communications Commission. Children’s Internet Protection Act. 27 Oct.

2008. 7 Apr. 2009 <http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html>.

Gauthier, Kelli. “Hamilton County: ACLU hits blocking of Web sites by schools.”

Chattanooga Times-Free Press. 16 Apr. 2009. Tennessee Newspapers

NewsBank Inc. Columbia State Community College, Lawrenceburg, TN. 18

Apr. 2009 <http://infoweb.newsbank.com>.

Lewis, Harry. “Not Your Father’s Censorship.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.

55.19 (2009): B9-B10. OmniFile Full Text Mega. H.W.Wilson. Columbia State

Community College, Lawrenceburg, TN. 18 Apr. 2009

<http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com>.

“List of the 13 Internet enemies.” Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom. 7

Nov. 2006. 7 Apr 2009 <http://www.rsf.org/print.php3?id_article=196037>.

Riley, Duncan. “Australia Joins China in Censoring the Internet.” Techcrunch.com 30

Dec. 2007. TechCrunch. 19 Apr. 2009

<http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/30/ Australia-joins-china-in- censoring-

the-internet/>.
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Rosen, Jeffrey. “Freespeech on the web: is the internet really the bastion of free

expression that we think it is? (TECHNOLOGY).” New York Times Upfront 141.9

(Can 12, 2009): 22(2). General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Columbia State

Community College, Lawrenceburg, TN. 18 Apr. 2009 <http://find.gale-

group.com/itx/start.do?prodid=GRGM>.

“Survey of Government Internet Filtering Practices Indicates Increasing Internet

Censorship.” Berkman Center for Internet & Society. 18 May 2007. Harvard

University. 24 Mar. 2009

<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/first_global_filtering_survey_release

d>.

Williams, Martyn. “Internet Censorship Code of Conduct in the Works.” PCWorld. 18

Mar. 2008. 17 Apr. 2009

<http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,43545/printable.html>.