the internet

The internet is liberating for people in many ways, but there are powerful forces trying to restrain it's usefulness to those of us who favor freedom

7 April 2003 - Fretting about the future, lost liberty, by Declan McCullagh, C|NET News

Ways the internet is useful
Ways the internet is being restricted
(because of the reasons to the left?)

enables anonymous commerce

enables free, mass communication (bypassing establishment control of media organs)

enables low-cost access to world-wide markets

Blocking:

3 December 2002 - Tens of thousands of web sites now blocked in China; Updated report says news sites systematically blocked, by Mike Magee, uTheInquirer

Busts/attacks on free speech:

Shut down offensive websites, Jewish Internet Association, so this is how they do it!
10 September 2001 - US pulls the plug on Muslim websites; Islamic groups have condemned a government crackdown on a Texan telecoms company as part of a "witch-hunt", by Brian Whitaker, Guardian Unlimited
Further restrictions

Interception/monitoring:

20 December 2002 - Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet, by John Markoff and John Schwartz, New York Times
26 August 2002 - Bush to Call for Fed NOC, by Caron Carlson and Dennis Fisher, eWeek

The Bush administration has plans to create a centralized facility for collecting and examining security-related e-mail and data traffic and will push private network operators to expand their data-gathering initiatives, according to an unreleased draft of the plan.

The proposed cyber-security Network Operations Center is included in a draft of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which was developed by the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and is due for release Sept. 18.

The call for expanded data collection and analysis results from administration concerns that efforts to secure cyberspace are hampered by the lack of a single data-collection point to detect cyber-security incidents and issue warnings, according to a draft of the plan, which was obtained by eWeek.

Critics, however, worry that such a system would be expensive, difficult to manage and allow government agencies to expand their surveillance powers. [Duh, why do you think they want to set this up?]

24 August 2002 - Bush Security Plan Would Target And Screen Email, By Roy Mark, Rense.com

According to an unreleased draft plan prepared by the Bush administration, the president favors creating a centralized source for collecting and reviewing e-mail and data relating to cyber security...would collect threat data from...in addition to seeking private sector security data...would involve the major ISPs, hardware and software vendors, IT security companies, law enforcement agencies and computer emergency response teams...the plan calls for the private sector to increase its collection of threat data and share it with the government...a single system for corporations to report...wants the federal government to collect information from the private sector...To alleviate fears of privacy litigation, the administration is proposing to create exemptions from Freedom of Information Act requirements and exemptions from anti-trust laws to reduce liabilities that might arise from private companies revealing information to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies...requires private companies to disclose their IT security practices.

26 October 2001 - FBI Seeking to Wiretap Internet, by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News Channel

Filtering:

'Politics of Control' Leads a Law Student to Challenge Digital-Copyright Act

Censorship (even self-censorship):

"We are creating what is a morally acceptable view of the world." [!] , Steve Berkowitz, president of AskJeeves Web properties

Google is now censored!
23 February 1995 - Revisionism on the Internet 'A Menace That Must Be Fought', by Marvin Stark and Norman Swartz, Jewish Western Bulletin of Vancouver, British Columbia

Funny business by govt:

Al Gore, Father of the Internet?
2 Aug 2002 - Politicians renew fight for anti-porn law, CNET News

A few items of good news:

15 November 2002 - U.S. won't support Net "hate speech" ban, by Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com

Google's skewing and self-censorship (and other search engines?)

Google is now (self) censored!
Google Watch; A look at how Google's monopoly, algorithms, and privacy policies are undermining the Web.

Real Abuses of the internet

15 October 2002 - Pro-Israeli Terrorism against the USA Continues Unchecked, War without end
11 October 2002 - Spammers Hit HNN, by HNN Staff
23 September 2002 - Web Warfare Comes to America, by Lawrence Davidson, CounterPunch
23 September 2002 - Middle East Professors Say They Are Under Email Seige, by HNN Staff (George Mason University's History News Network)

Other interesting related pages on this site:

 

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