Internet Censorship and Net Neutrality

[Jaker the Baker]

Hey guys! I'm doing research for a school project, and I made a survey to help me gather information. If anyone's willing to take a quick 5 minute survey, I'd REALLY appreciate it.
The survey can be found here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YWPRJZP

I don't want this thread to just be a bland advertisement, though.
What do you all know about internet censorship? Write some reactions to the survey, and we'll see where the discussion goes

 

[Omikron009]

I took your survey, and actually learned a few things along the way. For someone who uses the internet so much, I really don't know enough about how it's "governed."

 

[Julianking93]

Huh. Interesting survey. Didn't really know much about that whole Wikileaks thing until now.

Glad to learn something new

 

[Merlynstorm]

Honestly, I feel the less censorship involved the better. I think it should be up to the people, and not the government to decide what is sensible for viewing. Well, aside from downright exploitive things, like murder, rape and child pornography, because both of those take away another human being's self worth and dignity.

 

[Another]

Took it.

Honestly a pretty good survey. Particularly the last three questions because they were informative.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Survey taken!

I'm very against internet censorship. Of course, there's things that are illegal and should be taken down, but such things should only be used on grossly illegal content.
Like the Wikileaks example. That should not have been blocked, in my opinion. It was a free-speech oriented website, not some kiddie-porn snuff site.

I've said all this kind of stuff before though. To summarize my views: I wouldn't trust government with the power to censor the internet, because the internet is the modern 'information highway'. If you give them the opportunity to control what information people can have, you give them potentially limitless power. There is no chance that won't be abused somewhere down the line. History has already shown this happening countless times, it would certainly repeat if given the chance.

That's my view, anyway.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I know that censorship should only be used to protect those that are being exploited or wrongly used (child pornography, videos of rape, dog fighting tips, ways to shoot up a school, torture techniques things like that). Well, I think that. And thats my opinin on it.

But then again, I'm from America, so we have the freedom of the press. I dont see the harm in people expanding their minds and taking in different views of the world. I can see why governments like North Korea or China would limit access, but I think its wrong. I just think that its wrong unless its an extreme thing like mentioned above.

 

[Dexiro]

Internet censoring would never work. The internet is just far too vast for it to be done well and the government can't be trusted with this power.

Like would they block sites based on keywords or something? Because that'd just be incredibly dangerous and block more good sites than bad.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Going to take it after I post here. I'll update this then...

As for your question before I take it, I know that I don't like the idea of internet censorship but I realize that it was inevitable as the popularity of the internet increasingly grows. Governments trying to get all the power they can... I know nothing of what's going on at the moment though.

...*taking survey*...

EDIT: Top secret material should be, I don't know, kept secret? If it leaks onto the internet than you've failed. I'm against governments having the power to block access to sites at a whim...

[sub]Am I becoming an internet freedom guy or something? Whatever, I like staying neutral so I'll see how this plays out. Thanks for the thread though.[/sub]

 

[Mechsoap]

There you go, hope you get a A+!

 

[Jaker the Baker]

Thanks guys! I'm glad you guys actually learned something along the way.
I tried as hard as I could to keep the primer info of those last three questions as neutral as possible.

Might as well share some more info, just for the hell of it:
Countries like, obviously, China use filtering software. It concerns me when I find out that my own U.S. government is using the exact same filtering software as such a repressive government.

Another ironic thing, is that, despite the refusal by major ISPs in the US to sell their lines to competitors on a wholesale basis, other countries who do the same have much greater broadband penetration.

And watch out for the walled garden thing. The scary thing is that, even on PCs, things are going that way O_O

Sometimes I hate living in a world full of monkeys T_T

 

[microhive]

The Net Neutrality legislation doesn't allow for the scenario in question 5.

 

[Jaker the Baker]

Is there legislation against it? The last I heard, in the U.S. at least, there's no legislation banning it. There's TALK of net neutrality legislation, but I didn't know it had actually passed.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Trouble is, those in charge seem to like bringing in new laws to 'protect' us from terrorism or paedophiles, then they go ahead and abuse those new laws in ways unintended, and you see stuff not even relevant to the original issue being taken down by the new laws.

 

[microhive]

Is there legislation against it? The last I heard, in the U.S. at least, there's no legislation banning it. There's TALK of net neutrality legislation, but I didn't know it had actually passed.

The FCC snuck it in 2-4 days before the holydays when the Republics were away and it passed.

However, Fox News and republicans began to badmouth the legislation and use tricks to obscure the facts into it being about internet censorship.

 

[elbrandino]

I took it. And the fact that my government was actually able to block Wikileaks made me very concerned. Good survey I think. Informative.

 

[Jaker the Baker]

The FCC snuck it in 2-4 days before the holydays when the Republics were away and it passed.

However, Fox News and republicans began to badmouth the legislation and use tricks to obscure the facts into it being about internet censorship.

Delicious, I must say. That's what they get for taking early vacation, the lazy buggers.

Quick note: I found out for SURE that Germany, France, and the U.K. have censorship laws, though, according to the 2006 book I'm reading, the U.S. does not.

 

[warrcry13]

AWWW I wanted to take the survey but it is down. I WANNA LEARN NEW THINGS TOO

 

[Biosophilogical]

AWWW I wanted to take the survey but it is down. I WANNA LEARN NEW THINGS TOO

I know how you feel *sympathetic shoulder pat*