Poll: Could Chinese style censorship ever hit the US

[Mathew952]

Could the Government ever take control of the internet the way china has?

I'm on the side of no.
Legal issues:
The 1st amendment prevents it.
The only way to install effective filters would be to take control of ISPs, or force them to install them.
Monitoring people to see if they were visiting these "bad sites" would violate the fourth amendment.

Technical issues:

This simply isn't feasible. First off, the sheer number of sites means that in order to create an effective filter, you'd have to have a force of people looking for sites to block and adding them to the filter list. And if your site was blocked, How difficult is it to change domain names and get a new IP address? Or, change your registry from .com, to .net or .org? Or depending on how they block the sites, you could do something as simple as changing your port address from the default 80, to 81, and there are plenty of ports to chose from.

But let's theorize that you successfully block this site. There would be nothing to prevent the site admin from simply hosting the HTML file on an FTP server, or if that's blocked, sharing it via P2P.Or, if you have the mailing list, and some spamming software, you just send the HTML file as an attachment out to your users, or just send the page as an email in it self.

Not to mention, all the while, whilst this is happening, the TV, radio, and print media are covering it, and exposing what's happening,and sinking the governments popularity to the point where any sensible congressman would hop on the un-censoring train and pass legislation to stop it.Even if the congress doesn't do it, You could remove the offending politicans with a recall, or create a ballot initiative to over turn it, or take a case to the supreme court to have the actions overturned.

 

[Inverse Skies]

They could... why they would ever want to I do not know. My guess if they ever do it'll be akin to the situation that happens in fictional stories (such as Stephen King's 'The Stand') where the government tries to control the media to prevent knowledge of Captain Trips (aka the superflu) spreading.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

...How do you know that it hasn't already? It is highly unlikely, but how do I know what I can't access? I've never left the country... Bah, paranoia aside, I think that the chances are highly unlikely...

 

[Dugarel]

I agree with the OP, something like that would never work. Even if a Presidential order went out that suspended Habius Corpus and sensored all forms of media, the Senate would have to confirm it within 48 hours and that would never happen. And even if we say all of this happens and is successful and congress approves, then Montana will break off from the rest of the United States and there will be civil war. I will join on the side of Montana and wear a brown duster in battle. When we inevitable lose I will then take up smuggling.

 

[Zephirius]

To quote Voltaire: "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

The first part doesn't apply so much, but I think everyone should be allowed to say what they want, no matter how conceited or ignorant. No exceptions.

 

[Micah Weil]

Get enough whining soccer moms to do their thing, and it won't be just a worry. >.>

On the serious, though...it's perfectly feasible. There are enough groups out there that want to restrict thought (which is what censorship really is). Give one of them enough power and crazy, and the 1st Amendment will be able to stop them.

 

[Arcade_Fire]

Could the Government ever take control of the internet the way china has?

I'm on the side of no.
Legal issues:
The 1st amendment prevents it.
The only way to install effective filters would be to take control of ISPs, or force them to install them.
Monitoring people to see if they were visiting these "bad sites" would violate the fourth amendment.

Technical issues:

This simply isn't feasible. First off, the sheer number of sites means that in order to create an effective filter, you'd have to have a force of people looking for sites to block and adding them to the filter list. And if your site was blocked, How difficult is it to change domain names and get a new IP address? Or, change your registry from .com, to .net or .org? Or depending on how they block the sites, you could do something as simple as changing your port address from the default 80, to 81, and there are plenty of ports to chose from.

But let's theorize that you successfully block this site. There would be nothing to prevent the site admin from simply hosting the HTML file on an FTP server, or if that's blocked, sharing it via P2P.Or, if you have the mailing list, and some spamming software, you just send the HTML file as an attachment out to your users, or just send the page as an email in it self.

Not to mention, all the while, whilst this is happening, the TV, radio, and print media are covering it, and exposing what's happening,and sinking the governments popularity to the point where any sensible congressman would hop on the un-censoring train and pass legislation to stop it.Even if the congress doesn't do it, You could remove the offending politicans with a recall, or create a ballot initiative to over turn it, or take a case to the supreme court to have the actions overturned.

Well idk about the government, but a lot of public institutions (schools and the like) have some pretty unreasonable levels of internet censorship.

Take my school for example. You don't have just the standard sex/profanity filter there - all streaming media and blogs are banned. Any site including the word "game" (yes, sports included) is banned.

In addition, all external email clients (Yahoo, Gmail, Comcast) are, you guessed it, banned. All email access is restricted to district accounts, and all messages sent through the district email service is also subject to search and blockage (i.e. if you sent a message like "are you going to the soccer game?", the word "game" would be flagged by the filter and your friend would be unable to read the message)

Plus, they have this software called synchroneyes that allows any administrator to see what's on the screen of any computer in the school at any time. It's fucking creepy.

I was in Iran over the summer to visit some family, and their government web filter is more lenient than my American high school's. Think about that for a minute.

 

[Iron Mal]

It's one of those things that possible but not probable.

It COULD happen but it's not very likely.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Anything is possible, but it is very very unlikely.

 

[Biek]

I actually read about this regarding the internet in the Netherlands. Shutting it down completely would be impossible. The network has grown so much. I think censoring it as far as they do in China would cause massive protesting.

 

[mhitman]

there isn't really free speech or that in China,the government there are pricks. I doubt that Western Countries will ever have that level of Censorship

 

[I3uster]

Australia has a filter, and Germany gets one.
Sure, its only for child pornography now, but when you have a filter, you have a tool...

 

[goodman528]

Western countries use a different type of censorship to China. Biased reporting and spin instead of outright banning something. So all sides are acknowledged to exist, but the censored side is discredited before it is shown in a very partial light. Using this type of technique, the US government does not need to censor the information, because the population are automatically censoring the information using the "stupidity of the perceived majority". In comparison, China has much to learn about censorship from the western nations.

When a piece of information is presented before a western audience, e.g. "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction", a significant minority of American people accepts this, and the protesting majority can be safely ignored. Thus major government actions such as passing of laws and starting wars can be constructed on this kind of false information, which is presented to be better and more readily acceptable than real information.

In comparison, when a piece of information is presented by the Chinese media, e.g. "Iraq will stop the American Army in Baghdad, and the ensuing battle will cost tens of thousands of US lives. and last many months.", a significant minority of the Chinese people laughs at this like a joke, and making fun of official statements, and this slowly becomes a majority activity.

So, the real question, is in fact the other way round, will China ever learn western methods of effective media control?

 

[goodman528]

double post

 

[Barry93]

of course it will, we've already taken the constitution and put it through the paper shredder

 

[cleverlymadeup]

This simply isn't feasible. First off, the sheer number of sites means that in order to create an effective filter, you'd have to have a force of people looking for sites to block and adding them to the filter list. And if your site was blocked, How difficult is it to change domain names and get a new IP address? Or, change your registry from .com, to .net or .org? Or depending on how they block the sites, you could do something as simple as changing your port address from the default 80, to 81, and there are plenty of ports to chose from.

actually it's fairly easy to block stuff, there is an easy way to actually do this. block all sites and allow what you want thru and then if you add a site you have to apply to be allowed thru. it's not very far fetched or difficult

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

They would want to. If they succeeded in getting it through, there'd still be people getting around it though with proxy servers, links to satellites and the like. There's absolutely no way you can completely censor Americas internet.

 

[ae86gamer]

My answer is no.

 

[Yokomitsu]

I am furious with the Austrlian goverment who are bringing these filters into our countries so no longer will i be able to look up all my favourite things....