Freedom+of+the+Internet

=**__FREEDOM OF THE INTERNET__**=

Saif Khondoker Wasi Khan Grade 12 ITGS HL

http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-8/honk-for-internet-freedom.jpg


 * Guiding Questions**
 * Who owns the Internet?
 * Research fact and opinion about who owns and controls Internet access globally
 * Make a study of at least two different countries, including China: contrast and compare their policies and approaches to censorship of the Internet
 * What are the main issues concerning government control and /or influence over Internet access?
 * How does government control/censorship affect business and education?


 * Who owns the internet?**


 * No one actually owns the Internet**, and no single person or organization controls the Internet in its entirety. More of a concept than an actual tangible entity, the Internet relies on a physical infrastructure that connects networks to other networks. There are many organizations, corporations, governments, schools, private citizens and service providers that **all own** **pieces of the infrastructure**, but there is no one body that owns it all. There are, however, organizations that oversee and standardize what happens on the Internet and assign IP addresses and domain names, such as the National Science Foundation, the Internet Engineering Task Force, ICANN, InterNIC and the Internet Architecture Board.



If the US government decided tomorrow it did not want .Iran or any other country in the root they (US) could eliminate it from the root zone file. This is very much possible as there is **no legislation or internationally agreed rule** or binding force that prevents them from doing that. Or if China held that power would we still be comfortable knowing that the Chinese government could decide to remove the US from the root or mess things up in some way as already China has its great firewall which could become something more. There are suggestions that the question of the ultimate internet control could lead countries or regions to go it alone and form their own walled gardens or splinter nets.
 * It is a know fact that the internet was invented by, and is run by, the United States. But as its power and importance grows so has the controversy over who controls it?**The US has promised to exercise a lighter touch, but some fear the internet could suffer interference from other governments or even be **split up into regional networks.**

The internet can be both a tool to spread **democracy and free-speech, and a weapon of oppression.** Measures like the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention can help digital detectives hunt down online baddies, but can also impact our rights. The Council is also pushing for the Convention of Human Rights to have the same strength in the virtual as it does in the real world. Technology also provides us with means of surveillance because we leave footsteps every time we visit a website or we move around on the net, to an extent that we don't do in the physical space. Thereby there are the means of **retaining data about us and monitoring** us. It is just very easy to track data online.
 * Tracking**

The divisions are not just about **politics and policing**, but also **culture and language** and the internet's lack of linguistic diversity. This could be the reason why so-called minority languages get so upset about the representation or under representation of those languages on the internet. The internet has no real government to speak of, **tremendous political divisions and countless minority languages**. As a country the internet would be impossible to rule: many are happy to leave it that way
 * English dominance**
 * English rules the Domain Name System** and other languages are forced to give way. Because the internet is primarily English it imposes a second burden. That a net surfer must only be a literate, moreover the have to be English literate to access content in their own language.

·

**__China__**

 * Background:**

Since the **commercialization of the Internet** in China in 1995, China has become one of the fastest-growing Internet markets in the world. There are over a **105 million internet users** in China, out which 34 million are Bloggers. The number of domestic Internet users is doubling every six months. The authorities have introduced **scores of regulations**, closed Internet cafes, blocked e-mails, search engines, foreign news and politically-sensitive websites, and have recently introduced a **filtering system** for web searches on a list of prohibited key words and terms.

http://www.dieneueepoche.com/pics/2006/06/11/xl/2006-06-11-xl--2005-1-18-internet_china_01.jpg


 * __Personal opinion and views of Mr Jeff Utecht, a school teacher based in Shanghai__**



“Advantages in China…I don’t see any. When I lived in Saudi Arabia they blocked pornography sites, so that was good as then nobody could access those sites. The bad part is that they also blocked a lot of **information/sites that had anything bad written against the leaders of the country**. That goes for both Saudi Arabia and here in China.”
 * Advantages:**

1. "Free and open access: **The government here in China blocks any site that speaks out against the government**. Therefore if you want to read about anything having to do with the revolution you won’t find it. This is the main reason Wikipedia is blocked here in China as Wikipedia has quite a few articles on China. We also from time to time lose access to other news sites such as BBC, CNN, etc when they run stories about China. And it’s not just the Internet but TV as well. “
 * Two main disadvantages:**

o Websites belonging to outlawed groups, such as **Falun Gong**. To read and find out more about this group and why the Chinese government are against them go to: http://www.religioustolerance.org/falungong.htm o News sources that often cover some taboo topics such as police brutality, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, **freedom of speech**, democracy, and Marxist sites. These sites include Voice of America, BBC News, and Yahoo! Hong Kong o Sites related with Taiwan government, media, or other organizations, including sites dedicated to religious content, such as CBETA, a site that provides the complete Chinese Buddhist canon. o Web sites that contain **obscenity, pornography and criminal activity** o Sites linked with the **Dalai Lama** and his International Tibet Independence Movement, including his teachings.
 * __Censored content__**

Although blocking foreign sites has received much attention in the West, this is actually only a part of the PRC effort to censor the Internet. Although the **government rarely practices this**, much more effective is the ability to censor content providers within mainland China, as the **ISPs and other service providers are restricting customers' actions** for fear of being found legally liable for customers' conduct. The service providers are assumed an editorial role with regard to customer content, thus became publishers, and legally responsible for libel and other torts committed by customers.
 * __Effects on businesses:__**

Although the **government does not have the physical resources** to monitor all Internet chat rooms and forums, the threat of being shut down has caused **Internet service providers to employ internal staff**, colloquially known as "[|big mamas]", who stop and remove forum comments which may be politically sensitive. Thus their labor **costs have also gone up.**

However, Internet service providers have adopted some **counter-strategies**. One is to go forth posting **politically sensitive stories** and removing them only when the government complains. In the hours or days in which the story is available online, people read it, and by the time the story is taken down, the information is already public.

In addition, Internet service providers often replace censored forum comments with white space which allows the reader to know that comments critical of the authorities had been submitted, and often to guess what they must have been.


 * Efforts at breaking through**

The **firewall is largely ineffective** at preventing the flow of information and is rather easily broken by determined parties by using [|proxy servers] outside the firewall. [|VPN] and [|SSH] connections to outside **mainland China** are not blocked, so circumventing all of the censorship and monitoring features of the **Great Firewall of China** is trivial for those who have these secure connection methods to computers outside mainland China available to them.

=__U.S.A.__=

The USA Government has enacted **two Federal laws** intended to censor offensive online content. Neither of these laws are in force as at March 2002. The **first law (the CDA)** was struck down by the USA Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. The **second law (the COPA),** which is more narrowly focussed and covers only communications that are made for commercial purposes on the World Wide Web, is the subject of a Court injunction (also on First Amendment grounds) preventing its enforcement pending a decision of the Supreme Court. The Court decision is expected to be handed down in the latter part of 2002.

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/Internet%20censorship.gif

Since 1996, four U.S. states, New York, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia **have passed Internet censorship legislation** restricting/banning online distribution of material deemed "harmful to minors". These laws have been struck down on Constitutional grounds.

The States prohibited Internet users from using the Internet to communicate material that, under contemporary community standards, would be deemed patently offensive to minors under the age of eighteen.

**The Death of the Internet**
media type="youtube" key="Feiy-jefcE4" [|**http://news.com.com/5208-1028-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=22456&messageID=199732&start=-1**]

Conclusion

Vinton Cerf of Google believes the internet is a very disruptive technology. "Adjusting to that in various regimes will take some time," he said. "I think if we just keep persisting in getting these facilities out and making them easily accessible to people and making them affordable, eventually we will erode a lot of the repressive behaviour that we are seeing today."

The internet is a very powerful tool which could be used for good or bad purposes and has far reaching consequences. The United States, a democratic country which strongly believes in freedom of speech allows relative freedom of the internet. In the United States there are no central government rules or regulations restricting the use of the internet. However certain states have legislations that restrict the use of the internet. The legislation has been passed to protect privacy, cultural and social sensitive issues.

On the other hand the use of the internet is very restrictive. It is used a tool to protect the interest of the governing party in China. What is interesting to notice is that both countries block certain cites to avoid conflict and “for the benefits of its own people”.


 * __Bibliography:__**

A special thanks to Mr Jeff Utecht for providing the answers to our questionnaire, and to Mrs. Lindsay for helping us contact him.

" POW pictures spark Internet censorship debate." __USA__ __TODAY__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/iraq/2003-03-26-net-censorship_x.htm >


 * "**Censorship in the United States." __Censorship__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://www.serendipity.li/cda.html#voa >

" Internet Censorship Means No Freedom of Speech." __Argumentative Persuasive Topic__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=10445 >

" Who owns the Internet?." __CIO Blog__. 9 Dec. 2006 < http://blogs.cio.com/node/209 >

“Internet Censorship in China” __Censorship__. 3rd December, 2006. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/testimony-internet-in-china.html

“China boasts 2nd highest number of bloggers” __Next Billion__, 2nd December 2006. http://www.nextbillion.net/newsroom/2006/09/27/china-boasts-34-million-bloggers-2nd-highest-number-of-internet-users

“State control of the Internet in China” Amnesty International 4th December, 2006. http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA170072002