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The Internet is slowly being censored, filtered, and throttled: Why are our corporate governments trying to control information?
by chycho
There is a very good possibility that the World War III option is an attempt to control the Internet by eliminating Net Neutrality and online free speech. It appears that the boundaries set between countries through treaties are vanishing due to the exponential dissemination of information through the Net. This is in conflict with the wishes of the oligarchy who are willing to do anything to maintain control. After all, it is, in large part, our technological evolution that is bringing about our socioeconomic metamorphosis that we see manifesting itself as a global financial crisis.
Click to enlarge - source.
The attack on the Internet use to be just three-pronged; bandwidth throttling by ISP’s, Internet censorship by governments, and the oligarchy trying to prevent Network Neutrality. However, as of this year, we can now add a new category to this list, autocratic control over the Internet.
In April 2009, Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced a bill “to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure.” The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gave “the president the ability to ‘declare a cybersecurity emergency’ and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any ‘critical’ information network ‘in the interest of national security.’” The bill did not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition was left to the president.
Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed with this Bill which “proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.”
“They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt - PDF), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.
“The new version would allow the president to ‘declare a cybersecurity emergency’ relating to ‘non-governmental’ computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for ‘cybersecurity professionals,’ and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.”
These new despotic powers for the President of the United States of America are raising alarm bells across the globe, as they should.
Below you will find two maps of Internet censorship ratings per country. The first is from 2008 and the second from 2009. As is indicated, in one short year, many more countries have begun to censor the Internet.
Click to enlarge - source.
As well as the above, the mainstream media and the corporate elite have created the “Piracy” buzzword so that they can preserve our present discriminatory and bias system of disseminating information - a dysfunctional system that has given power and control to the elite through archaic copyright laws that have neither benefited artists nor consumers. This model has censored and controlled information, news, and entertainment for the benefit of multinational conglomerates.
As was previously stated, as a collective we must understand that democracy can only exist in a society with an educated populace, and the right for self-governance can only be obtained through knowledge. As long as the Internet remains Neutral and uncensored, we, as a global community, can make a difference. We can fill the gap left behind by our corporate governments by becoming proactive in every aspect of our lives and our civilization.
The more information that we share within our collective the more informed decisions we will be able to make for our society. For those who have not noticed yet, the established hierarchical system is collapsing.
The only way we will be able to bring about positive changes is by sharing our art and our vision without corporate censorship, distribution limitations, or government bureaucracy.
This global community that has been created through the Internet, functioning as the only true free society, is reshaping our world. Where this interaction and connectivity will lead us is yet to be determined, however, the changes are and continue to be unprecedented.
The following three presentations are an excellent introduction to this topic. Here is hoping that we maintain control of the largest library ever known in human existence.
An anthropological introduction to YouTube (55:33)
Related posts: ‘The YouTube Boycott: In support of universal access to all knowledge’, and ‘YouTube vs. Daily Motion: Who owns the footage that we capture?’.
Future Of Bittorent: Presentation By Mark Pesce on BitTorrent (1:02:02)
Related post: ‘In support of The Pirate Bay and all artists and individuals that improve our lives through file sharing’.
How technology's accelerating power will transform us (23:41)
Related post: ‘The dot-com crash did not kill technology: Evolving through exponential growth’.
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