Interesting enough, the some of the this technology – especially that which was used in Egypt – was manufactured in the U.S.:
For a long time, the dominant conversation around internet censorship has focused on two of the practice’s giants: Iran and China.
Arguably owners of the most sophisticated filtering methods, the criticism levied against these two countries has been deserved. And yet, the focus on them has largely been at the exclusion of other countries that also censor the web to varying degrees – including an increasing number of democracies.
In recent weeks, Turkey, Tunisia, and Australia have all made headlines for their various plans to introduce new filtering schemes. Though each country’s plan differs, they all have similar focus: curbing access to obscene content.
But while blocking obscenity may reflect the will of the people, such filters nonetheless have implications for freedom of expression.
Web censorship moves West – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.
Related articles
- This Week in Internet Censorship (eff.org)
- Web censorship moves West (pikapvs.wordpress.com)
- More Internet Censorship in Great Britian (pdark.de)
- Hackers Protest Censorship by Taking Down a Government Website in Turkey (mashable.com)
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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