Is internet censorship and de-anonymization an attack on our freedom of speech?

The Internet is the newest and most cutting edge technological medium to date. Currently, any person is allowed to express any opinion online anonymously no matter how controversial it may be with no chance of it having any effect on their personal lives. This fact is what makes the internet so great but it opens up a vast field of unknown possibilities which could potentially make this medium a very dangerous tool. A critical point to recognize here is that while certain countries may censor all forms of media in one way or another, it is still possible for citizens of that country to access information from across the world online, effectively bypassing their government’s laws.

The issue that governments have with censoring the internet is that it is almost entirely privately owned so they must rely on methods such as content filtering or site blocking. To date, these attempts have been like trying to stay dry in the rain using a net; a phenomenal amount of sites leak through undetected. One reason for this is the ease of starting up a website. If a person knows what they are doing, it is possible to have content with full navigation online within a day. A research study which supports this was conducted in 2007 and published in 2009 by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. It stated that: "We are confident that any censorship circumvention tool developers will for the most part keep ahead of the governments' blocking efforts", but also that "we believe that less than two percent of all filtered Internet users use circumvention tools" (Zuckerman, 2007) A few cases where internet censorship is actually successful can be seen in parts of China, North Korea, and Cuba. The reason for this success is that the government has supreme control over all internet connecte...

/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=80964 17 19 2 20 2007 2008 2009 2011 29 3 abl abus access account across act actual ad advanc advocaci affect ahead allow almost also although amend amount anarch anonym anoth appl april assang attack attempt back baltimor base becam beckman becom believ berkman betray bill blacklist block blog brain busi bypass call cannot card carri case censor censorship center certain chairman chanc chaotic china chris circumvent cite citi citizen civil cloak collect come commit common communiti compani complex comput concept conclus conduct confid congress connect consid content control controversi conveni copyright corpor could countermeasur countri creativ creator credit crime critic cuba current cut daili danger date day de de-anonym decad declin definit determin develop differ digit direct disobedi distant dmca domain dri dropbox due dynam eas easi easili econom economi edg effect effort elud employe engin ensur entir entitl eric essenti establish ethan even everyon exampl exist exploit export express extens facebook fact faith far fast field filter five flag focus follow footstep forev form fred free freedom freez full futur gain get global go goal golden good googl goos govern great group guarante hack hacker hal hand harbor harvard hazard held high host hundr id idea ident imposs includ industri inform infring initi innov inordin insid insur intellectu intent interact interest intern internet intrins invent ip iran issu jail jam job john juli julian jurisdict keep kickstart kill know knowledg known korea land lander landscap larg last law lead leak less let level liabil life like live lobbyist login loophol main maintain major make malici mani manipul march margin matter may meant media medium method michael microsoft midst millennium million minor month must nation navig near necessari need negat negoti net network never new newest news north notabl nov ny octob offend offer offshor one onlin open opinion outsid own owner page palfrey paper part parti pass path paypal peopl percent person pervert phenomen pioneer piraci place point polici ponder popular possibl post potenti power prevent privaci privat problem process profit properti protect publish pure put quick quot rain rais real realiti reason recogn red refer region regul relat reli remov repercuss report research research.microsoft.com research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=80964 restrict retriev rich right rise risk robert rogu safe safeti say scale schmidt search see seem seen senat sentenc serious share sheridan show similar simpl simpli simultan sinc sing site situat social societi softwar solut someth song sopa sort speech spread stand start startup state stay steal still stop studi subject success support suprem system target technolog test theft theori though threat thwart time today tool toward track trademark trait trend tri true truli truth turn twilio twitter two type u.s unabl uncertain undetect unfilt uniqu unit univers unknown unreli unseen upload use user vast violat volatil way web websit whether wikileak wilson within work world worthi would wouldn written xie year yinglian york youtube.com zuckerman