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1996-03-11
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A Protest Against Censorship on The Internet
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[24 Hrs Of Democracy] The essay links: [Prev| Next| Index]
I had written this page before the 24 Hours Of Democracy project started,
and had to submit it as my essay because of my untimely absence. Thus the
ESSAY PROPER has to be attached to this page.
There is a short and sweet essay I love so much that I have to have a
direct link on this page. Here it is... For Emma
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I believe in freedom of speech on the Internet but many countries have
imposed (or are preparing to impose) censorship on the Internet. Even
though the materials on my home page are not of the indecent type, I may
remove it when the Australian government imposes censorship on on-line
services. Please click HERE to see what you would miss if such an event
happened. In the meantime, this black page will stay here in a
semi-permanent basis as a symbol of my protest.
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Why?
The Internet is fundamentally an anarchy. It has lasted for more than a
decade and become more and more popular because of the freedom of speech,
the necessary requirement for its survival.
I was born in a country where the government controlled what I learned,
what I read and what I wrote. I grew up and now live in a better
environment but there still are social restrictions that don't allow me to
say all my thoughts. It is the spirit of freedom on the Internet that
inspired me to publish what I really want to write, not what would please
others. The Web provides a means of publishing my thoughts, my writing
without reservation or compromise.
I treasure the freedom of speech even though I detest a lot of materials on
some Web pages. I am not forced to read or see them unless I want to. On
the other hand, I have been too often forced to hear racist remarks in real
life.
Recently, because of it exponentially growing popularity, many governments
have noticed the power of the ubiquitous Internet and started trying to
impose their control on the last frontier of free anarchy. The Internet has
become a victim of political manoeurvres by narrow-minded short-sighted
dinosaurs who don't hesitate to sacrifice the future for their miserably
small advantages. Some examples are :-
(a) Late 1995, a local judge in Germany ordered CompuServe to deny its
customers access to some of the Usenet newsgroups that he thought indecent.
The result was that all CompuServe subscribers around the world lost access
to those newsgroups for a short period. The court order was an
all-there-for-you-to-see proof of the judge's total ignorance of the
Internet. The order was an unenforceable but annoying joke because any
participant of the banned newsgroups can cross-post their articles to other
newsgroups if they want them to reach the CompuServe users in Germany.
(b) Bill Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act that makes it
illegal for Americans to publish, access indecent materials anywhere on the
Internet. This is a blatant violation of freedom of speech. The Americans
are not allowed to publish (or access) Internet materials that promote
abortion (even though abortion is legal in the U.S.), materials that are
considered indecent (even though they are legally published on paper). Why
would the Internet be treated differently?
(c) The Australian government is trying to do the same. It is very likely
that they would impose regulations that will turn the Internet into a
useless brain-dead by threatening the service providers for liability,
prevent people like me from saying what I really think.
It is really frightening to watch the legislators trying to regulate
something that they don't understand. I have a feeling that their
unacceptably wrong reaction to the Internet has been originated from their
fear of its power, fueled by their ignorance and their self-hatred for
being left behind in the revolution. For more details, please read the
submissions in Karl Auer's page.
I believe that the Internet should be left as is. It is impossible to
control it without smothering it to an agonisingly slow death. The World
Wide Web created an avalanche of technology development and will be the
likely target for ridiculous censorship. Once the regulations are imposed
on us, our children will have less chance to access the Internet. The law
has been (and still is) slow to catch up with the information technology.
Now the law makers are trying to slow it down, arrest it without even
trying to understand it.
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It is our future that I want to protect. It is my beloved free Internet
that I want to protect.
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Anti-Censorship Protest Campaigns
The American Internet community staged a Black Thursday in February 1996 to
protest Bill Clinton's signing of the U.S. Communications Decency Act. A
Blue Ribbon Campaign followed. Please click on the image below if you want
to know more about it.
[Blue Ribbon]
I decided to put up this black page to show my personal protest. I am
essentially a coward. I have been running away from confrontations and many
a time felt ashamed of myself. This time, I decided to stand and fight.
This black page is a passive protest by a coward.
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A Cyberspace Independence Declaration
John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident and Co-Founder of Electronic
Frontier Foundation has said it all.
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Written by Thanh Nhan Tran, Canberra, Australia. The last touch was angrily
and hopelessly put down on 28 February 1996.
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