Internet censorship

[syrakusos]

Google is not obligated to post everything that comes through. They remove blogs...

Well, in fact, if this is true, then Google is less useful to me and I need to find another search engine. I expect a search engine to be uncritically numeric, the result of a "delphi" process, of millions of people making hundreds of choices. I will go down three pages, rarely seven, and if I do not find what I need, I reframe the query.

If Google is deciding what I will see, then I will stop using Google.

I will also pass the word to others. This is serious when it comes to university research.

[syrakusos]

Computer underground Digest

Wed Feb 17, 1993 Volume 5 : Issue 17

ISSN 1004-042X

http://www.totse.com/en/zines/cud_a/cud514.html

Date: Thu, 11 Feb 93 20:17 EST

From: "Michael E. Marotta" <MERCURY@LCC.EDU>

Subject: File 5--Censorship in Cyberspace

Excerpts from "Censorship in Cyberspace"

© 1993 by Michael E. Marotta the complete text (2000 words) appears in the ($5) 1993 Retail Catalog of Loompanics, P. O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Founded in 1974, Loompanics, publishers of unusual books, features about 300 titles on privacy, underground income, self-defense, etc.

+++++

As Ayn Rand noted, when people abandon money, their only alternative when dealing with each other is to use guns. Yet, the anti-capitalist mentality permeates cyberspace. Most public systems and networks actually forbid commercial messages. So, computer sysops and network moderators are reduced to cavalier enforcement of their personal quirks.

When Tom Jennings created Fidonet, Omni magazine called him an "online anarchist." Since then, Fidonet has developed a governing council and lost Jennings. Over the last two years, I have been banished from these Fidonet echoes:

* Stock Market for saying that Ivan Boesky is a political prisoner

* Virus for saying that viruses could be useful

* Communications for saying that telephone service should not be regulated by the government

* International Chat for asking "How are you" in Hebrew and Japanese.

Kennita Watson, whom I met on Libernet, told me this story:

When I was at Pyramid, I came in one day and

"fortune" had been disabled. I complained to

Operations, and ended up in a personal meeting with

the manager. He showed me a letter from the NAACP

written to Pyramid threatening to sue if they

didn't stop selling racist material on their

machines. They cited a black woman who had found

the "...there were those whose skins were black...

and their portion was niggardly.... 'Let my people

go to the front of the bus'..." fortune, and

complained to the NAACP. I suspect that she (and

the NAACP) were clueless as to the meaning of the

term "niggardly". I (as a black woman) was

embarrassed and outraged. Because of the stupidity

of a bunch of paranoid people, I couldn't read my

fortune when I logged out any more. "

It is important to bear in mind that to the censor, censorship, like all evils, is always an unpleasant but necessary means to achieve a good result. Robert Warren is a sysop who replied to an article of mine on Computer Underground Digest. He said: ... People have a right to say what they want in public, but some don't care about the responsibility that comes with it. So you zap 'em." Now, there is no argument with his basic premise: Since he owns the equipment, he has the final say in its use. This is his right. Likewise, the administrators of publicly-funded university computers also engage in censorship under a mandate to serve the people who pay taxes. "All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," the historian John E. E. Acton said. It is no surprise that this applies in cyberspace.

Political and social freedom have little to do with constitutions or elections. Congress could choose a new prime minister every day or the people could elect the secretary of state to a three year term. The details are unimportant. Some places are free and some places are controlled because the people in those places need freedom or accept oppression. It always comes back to the individual.

Dehnbase Emerald BBS is home to libertarian and objectivist discussions and is a vital link in Libernet. The number is (303) 972-6575. Joseph Dehn is not interested in enforcing rules.

Albert Gore and George Bush agreed on the need for a "data superhighway." The Electronic Frontier Foundation has recommended that this national network be open to commercial enterprises. This is good. An open market is the best protection against power and corruption.

------------------------------

Edited March 2, 2008 by Michael E. Marotta

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael,

Try Mahalo. It sits on Google, but not for everything, and it also gives you the other main search engines if you learn how to do it.

Michael

[syrakusos]

... I don't claim that Google is 100% a tool of the government, I say these things come in degrees, and that we have already started sliding.

Please define "we." (What I mean is, You and I are not doing this. It is not "us" but rather "Them"... "They.")

Google has already been in bed with the government of China to help prevent freedom of information access. Googling the word "democracy" is a bad idea if you live in China.

I googled United Nations Development Programme. Guess what I did not find.

Do they have a "right" to do that? Sure. But as noted, there is this blind spot among Objectivists (libertarians, conservatives.) The guy next door has a right to buy a dozen day-old chicks and mash them with a hammer. His "right" is not the important issue.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

March 5, 2008

Action News 36

From the article:

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.

The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.

. . .

Some said they felt it was a violation of First Amendment rights. Others say it is a good tool toward eliminating online harassment.

Represntative Couch says enforcing this bill if it became law would be a challenge.

A challenge?!!!

Heh.

How about impossible?

Somebody should tell him since he doesn't have a clue: Kentucky doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire world!

This guy Couch apparently wants to curb online bullying. But he's a government dude, so I think he wants to curb people mouthing off to him or his people in public on pain of a $500-1000 fine, i.e., he wants to dare people to not bow before him.

This dude is setting himself up for some real big-time public embarrassment if this bill goes forth—much worse than a flame war on some obscure site. This is the kind of thing that could cost him his career over time.

I just love it when the Internet, by its very nature, kicks the crap out of tin-pot dictator wannabes.

Michael

[tjohnson]

Yep, that's pretty laughable.

[BaalChatzaf]

I don't know how many other OL members have noticed, but the internet is becoming more and more censored lately. Here's a few recent stories:

Last year a popular atheists' account was deleted from YouTube. BitTorrent admins are getting thrown in the slammer even though they've done nothing but maintain internet plumbing (it's a dangerous precedent to use copyright law to shut down technology). When Ron Paul started doing very well, Digg censored Ron Paul Nation (http://www.giftedtwisted.com/?p=57) and then changed their algorithm so that Ron Paul stories would stop becoming popular.

Shayne

I was able to bring up the wikileaks.org site with no trouble at all. Furthermore it is listed by Google.

I also got 7,400,000 hits for Matthew Lee on Google.

So what is the problem?

Ba'al Chatzaf