Essay on The Debate Over Internet Censorship - 1547 Words

The Debate Over Internet Censorship Many people believe the Internet has become the World’s Emancipation Proclamation. They believe that this newfound cyber-freedom will free countless generations of people. These people will be of every race, creed and color, whose lives, up until now, have been restrained by the paradigm of governments. Whether it is the United States Government, or the government of a foreign nation, the Internet will be our new Underground Railroad of cyberspace. Recently, the World Wide Web has come under fire from various forms of censorship. Singapore has been a giant of aggressiveness in regard to censorship and technology. But even with Singapore’s relentless efforts for control of the World†¦show more content†¦We can understand from reading historical events why censorship does exist, and why it may exist in excess in one country as opposed to another. Kolko, Regan and Romano state: Bill Gates noted that all countries—from Singapore and China to the U.S. and Europe—wanted to control what they perceived to be undesirable material [9]. Germany is concerned over neo-Nazi content; Britain wants to protect state secrets. France (following the posting of Le Grand Secret, a banned book about the late President Francois Mitterand’s fight against cancer, which apparently violated medical secrecy and privacy laws) is proposing that the European countries start drafting international rules for the Internet [19]. Even the U.S., often regarded as a bastion of free speech and expression, now has to grapple with the â€Å"communication decency† due to the telecommunications legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton this past February. (429) By attempting to censor the Internet are we taking the application of existing laws that apply to our physical and tangible world and modifying them to fit the world of electronic technology and cyber space? Are current local, state, and federal laws applicable to restricting the super-highway of worldwide information? William D. Rumsey, Ph.D. of Philosophy at Indiana University Southeast, brought up a very good pointShow MoreRelated Should the Internet be censored? Essay861 Words   |  4 Pages Should the Internet be censored? From colonial times to the present, the media in America has been subject to censorship challenges and regulations. The Internet has become a vast sea of opportunity. Everyone is seizing the moment. The good and the bad of society have reduced the meaning of the Internet. Menace threatens each onlooker, as people browse the many pages of Cyberspace. 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