Name: Loh Yuan Cheng SACE registration number: 439680X Class: ENL 1321 3C1 Date: 24 April 2013

Topic : Internet censorship Research question: Should the internet be censored? Interest in this area of research: With the vastness that the internet has these days, the government, even search engines are allowed to check through emails and monitor what we look up on the internet as a way of investigating our lives. People can use the internet in positive ways, and others may use it in negative ways. Since internet is the part and parcel of our daily lives, I thought that doing a research on this topic will help me to become more aware of the issues surrounding what may become part of my work in the future. Definition of internet censorship Internet censorship is the control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the internet. It may be carried out by governments, private organizations at the behest of government, regulators, or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.

How internet censorship works? Censorship is the process of blocking access to information based on what a certain group of people believe. If we allow the internet to be censored, the once free network of information will have been compromised. If the internet is to be censored, there will be an enormous amount of power granted to those who decide what gets censored, and in the immortal words of Ben Parker, "With great power comes great responsibility." Can we really trust the fate of the internet to a few people? We have seen through the many attempts at Communism in Russia that corruption will always occur when power is highly concentrated. Now think of what would happen if almost all the communications around the globe were controlled by a corrupt power. The only way that corruption can be overthrown is if information is disseminated, and if

information is not freely exchanged, it becomes virtually impossible for any change to be made. We must preserve our ties of global communication, and in severing those ties, we give up so much of our freedom to information. Which countries have internet censorship? NORTH KOREA Internet use is extremely restricted with many of North Korea's 24 million people unable to get online. Some North Koreans can access an internal Intranet that connects to state media. Members of the elite, resident foreigners and visitors in certain hotels are allowed full access to the Internet. IRAN Most Western social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are blocked in Iran, as well as political opposition and sexually explicit websites. But proxy server sites and other methods are widely used to get around the official restrictions. Iran has announced plans to create its own domestic Internet with fully monitored content, but international experts question whether such a complete break from the worldwide Net is possible. Earlier this week, Iran accounted it had developed its own YouTube-style video sharing site. CHINA There are more than 500 million Chinese online but they contend with an extensive Internet filtering and censorship system popularly known as the "Great Fire Wall." Censors police blogs and domestic social media for content deemed pornographic or politically subversive and delete it. Many foreign websites, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the New York Times are blocked. Searches for controversial topics such as corruption scandals or jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo return error messages. Users evade controls using proxy servers. CUBA Tight control, slow connections and high costs mean only around 5 percent of Cubans have access to the global Internet, with another 23 percent relying instead on a government intranet with very limited content. Web access is mainly via public facilities where people must first register with identification. GULF ARAB STATES Political sites deemed threats to the state are often blocked. Since the Arab Spring, authorities across the Gulf have stepped up arrests of bloggers and others for posted considered offensive to rulers or advocating political reforms.

CENTRAL ASIA Internet censorship is prevalent across former Soviet Central Asian republics, but the strongest restrictions have been recorded in Iran's authoritarian neighbours to the north, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Controls are strictest in Turkmenistan, where social networking sites Facebook and Twitter are out-of-bounds, as is video-sharing site YouTube and numerous news websites.

Reasons internet should not be censored A main reason why most people would think that censoring the internet is wrong is because the World Wide Web was created for everyone. It was a huge step for the whole world. It's been open and free from the start, and people think it should continue to be that way. According to an article on NewsFlavor.com called "Should the Government Censor the Web? the writer states that the government shouldn't censor it simply because censoring things on the internet is nearly an impossible task. The internet is constantly changing; people are constantly creating new websites. It's against our freedom of speech after all, but how far can someone go until this right is taken away? On the other hand, people are constantly concerned with whom they're talking to on the internet. They're constantly concerned for their safety. Countless times there have been crimes dealt with that involved scamming. Most cases have to deal with internet dating, which may come with internet predators. This leaves no trust for interaction on the internet. You can't trust anyone at any time. People download illegally, claim things as their own, and feel an unlimited power. Parents are concerned for their children, and concerned for themselves, but it's surprising how many are oblivious to the dangers we face daily on the internet.

Reasons internet should be censored

It is important for the government to monitor because there might be some sexually obsessed people online and will try to give false information to meet up with a person and then rape them or sexually harass them. There is also a lot of child pornography which is done through Internet and innocent little kids who don't know anything become the victims There are many school shootings in which the criminal had posted his/her plans prior to the attack. Imagine if the police had monitored that and stopped the horrible crime and save a lot of young lives. An example would be the shooting in Montreal College where the criminal had posted his pictures on a website known as angel freaks.com and posted all the plans with a video that he was going to shoot

"random" people in the college. That could have been stopped if there were people monitoring the Internet.

Because Internet is a computer based system, it is crackable or in other words it can be hacked by professional hackers and many people could lose money that way. That is why censoring the Internet is important because there could be hackers hacking government computers and getting all our information. If the internet wasn't being censored it would be impossible to find who did it and where they did it from.

Conclusion In my opinion there are more benefits of Internet being censored rather than letting people free and protecting their privacy. Is privacy more important than lives? Is privacy more important than multi-million dollars of fraud? Is privacy more important than lives of young children which are being ruined by online sexual predators? These questions all have one answer which according to me should be "Privacy is not important than any of those things" If the government knows a way to stop crime then I think we all need to co-operate and let them take some steps in the direction they want in order to stop the crime. Many crimes are left unsolved due to the privacy of human issues and rights. Those rights are being misused more often than not and therefore it is in best interest to censor the Internet. These days even a ten year old kid can get access to porn and click "I am 18 years old", but if the Internet was censored then we could stop people under the legal age from watching porn or gambling online.

Proposed format: Report

Information sources:

The Blogger, 2008, Censorship and the Internet, http://www.helium.com/items/927085-should-the-internet-be-censored

Associated Press, 14 December, 2012 Internet censorship, restrictions around the globe, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/12/14/internet-censorship-restrictions-aroundglobe/

Panda S, 6 December, 2012, Government Pushing Internet Censorship Laws, http://spacepanda.hubpages.com/hub/Government-Pushing-Censorship-Laws

Schmidt E & Cohen J, 23 April, 2013, Web censorship: the net is closing in. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/23/web-censorship-net-closing-in

Planeswalker M, 27 December 2008, Censorship and the Internet, http://www.helium.com/items/1276461-censoring-the-internet

Hartley A, 14 October 2011, Should the internet be censored? http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/should-the-internet-be-censored

Tuinstra F, May 2009, Internet Censorship: The Myth, Oft Told, and the Reality.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/101905/Intern et-Censorship-The-Myth-Oft-Told-and-the-Reality.aspx

Expected outcome Internet censorship should not be banned.