Online Censorship
If your like me you know that Youtube is possibly the greatest time waster since computer solitaire. Also if your like me and would rather select what you want to watch than have someone else do it for you, you watch news stories online and if its bad you go to the next one.
Well, now it seams that Youtube is being banned in Turkey because the government doesn't agree with some of the videos posted on it. Those who access it via a Turkish ISP will now be faced with a page saying the site is blocked. This isn't the first time it was blocked. I remember I while ago a Brazilian model's case caused Brazil to shut off access after a user repeatedly posted a video of the model on a topless beach...or something like that. According to a CBC article one of the provinces of Australia banned access in schools because of possible offtending content.
This bring up a question of who is allowed to censor material online ? Do governments have the right to cut off our access to information which they cannot filter ? Can, like in the Australian example, The University of Western Ontario decide that you can no longer access youtube at school since it is bad your study habits ?
So the question is, who is allowed to play big brother ?
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/03/07/tech-turkey.html
Well, now it seams that Youtube is being banned in Turkey because the government doesn't agree with some of the videos posted on it. Those who access it via a Turkish ISP will now be faced with a page saying the site is blocked. This isn't the first time it was blocked. I remember I while ago a Brazilian model's case caused Brazil to shut off access after a user repeatedly posted a video of the model on a topless beach...or something like that. According to a CBC article one of the provinces of Australia banned access in schools because of possible offtending content.
This bring up a question of who is allowed to censor material online ? Do governments have the right to cut off our access to information which they cannot filter ? Can, like in the Australian example, The University of Western Ontario decide that you can no longer access youtube at school since it is bad your study habits ?
So the question is, who is allowed to play big brother ?
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/03/07/tech-turkey.html
posted by My Eyes Are Bleeding at 9:52 AM
6 Comments:
"I do not see this hapening in a democracy like Canada, and if censorship begins to take place, we should then end up questioning the state of our nation as a democracy."
It's already too late. I know someone that went to jail for a few months for posting something on a messageboard. Canada has no free speech, this ain't America. Check my previous post about burning books in Canada. Welcome to the New World Order. The Internet is the last stronghold of truth and free speech, that's why it is constantly critized and new laws are being introduced to stop this uncontrollable medium. The Internet lets you bypass the mainstream gatekeepers of "truth." Remember what we learned in highschool "never trust the internet."
I am not surprised at all by the youtube censorship, and this is mainly due to the fact that the Internet asa whole is much less free and open than we think. The Internet has been built up on a pedastle as a reinvigorater of participatory democracy and of Habermas' "ideal speech situation", known as the public sphere. In fact, not only are many of the most visited websites owned by large physical, "real" world corporations, but the Internet as a whole is constantly surveilled. Besides the everyday "cookies" that track you're web surfing and send you tailored advertisements and emails, they are actually companies set up for the purpose of tracking "deviant or suspicious behavior". This means that if you visit any kind og counter status-qup/mainstream/oppositional web site, and I'm not talking "terrorist" supportive sites but actually just any left wing, oppositional sites, youre movements after that are easily tracked. From there they can pull up anything on you from youre VISA bill to your a list of the books you have been borrowing from the library. The Internet is NOT the idealized haven it has been made out to be: its structure is commercial like any other media today as part of a capitalist society.
Honestly, I think that the government has every right to censor material it deems necessary. Obviously there needs to be a process in place to determine which material can and cannot be viewed on the internet, in order to act as a check on governmental power. However, I feel that most democracies like Canada don't abuse their censorship rights and when they do prohibit certain material I am confident that it is for a very good reason. I think that YouTube, although is very interesting and a great time waster, can be very dangerous when placed in the hands of the wrong people and I would take pride in the fact that my government has certain censorship standards.
Can the government censor any material it wants to ? I sometimes have fun by logging onto the Parent's Television Council. They are the organization that created all the crazyness around Janet Jacksons boobie. They work around the fact that the Surpreme Court of the United States found that the FCC can censor material which "The general populace finds obscene"....that judge obsenity by the number of complaints they get. What PTC does is spam the FCC with complaints...at one point it was discovered that PTC is responsible for more than 99 per cent of all complainst...and in once case if you removed all the spam from a show which was fined only 9 people bothered to complain.
A while back the show Without a Trace was fined millions for having a "teenage orgy scene"...I watched it on youtube....for one thing those teenagers all look like they are about 25...for another you would see worst stuff in a music video, or on All My Children for that matter.
I agree that "criminal" material...such as child porn should be banned from being transmitted (although if I recall there was some crazy Canadian supreme court ruling a few years back that made that a kinda grey area)...but do we really need to censor tv shows ?
I believe that the government has to an extent the right to block some internet web sites. I feel that the government should have a right to banned sites such as kitty porn or snuff because I think that does more harm then good (if any good at all!) Therefore, I believe the government has the right to intervene on websites such as the examples i just listed. However, when it comes to pettier websites like youtube, I don't think that the government has the right to banned such a site because our Charter of Rights and Freedoms could be infringed upon (unless the government uses notwithstanding or reasonable limits) We have the right to access whatever websites on the internet without the government telling us no on a meezy site as such. Therefore, I don't think the government has the right to banned us from harmless websites such as youtube. If this was to happen, this could give the government precedence to ban other petty sites. But like I said before the government has the right to ban harmful or disturbing sites with subjects like kitty porn on them. However, people can argue my point. BUt ahh well this is just my own opinion.
How do you guys feel about Canada's laws against "hate propaganda"? Should it censor "hate literature" and prosecute people that say "bad" things? Or should there be free speech?
Canada's current censorship laws have actually declared some bible passages as "hate speech."
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31080
Canada also extradites political or thought crime prisoners to other countries where they can be prosecuted by Orwellian laws to the fullest extent. Some special interest groups in Canada would love to have similar laws here, but they have to settle with the government of Canada exiling certain people.
In many places around the world (especially Democratic Europe)it's illegal to question certain events in history or the official version of events. Canada is not too far away from similar legislation.
Don't you love democracy?
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