Censorship eats Internet from within

While the journalistic community is arguing about whether it is ethical to use dirt from WiikiLeaks, a number of representatives of UN Member States have supported the creation of a special structure that will control the flow of information on the Internet.

At the meeting of the UN building in New York, the representative of Brazil proposed the establishment of a commission to develop criteria to regulate the Internet. This initiative was immediately supported by representatives of India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, such countries as Australia, USA, UK, Belgium and Canada pointed to the risk of creating yet another supranational supervisory authority, which will isolates itself from the user community, industry and the general public through its actions.

The proposal to cover the World Wide Web with a censorship net has caused criticism of many companies and organizations, including Google, International Chamber of Commerce and non-profit organization The Internet Society (ISOC).

The father of the Internet Vint Cerf, who is a vice-president of Google, stated: “we don’t believe governments should be allowed to grant themselves a monopoly on Internet governance.”

Meanwhile, the practice of introducing censorship on the Internet resources already exists in several countries. For example, Venezuela’s parliament on Monday approved a bill under which the government can regulate the information posted on the Internet.

Under this bill, any material or messages that contain hate speech of any kind, and call to political or religious intolerance, as well as express disrespect towards the authorities of the country, will be strictly prohibited.

Representatives of the opposition in Parliament who voted against the bill said that such measures constitute a threat to freedom of speech. Yet, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has a different opinion on this matter. He is convinced that the control over Internet portals will help to protect citizens against various crimes committed in cyberspace. According to him, people will stop receiving messages advertising drugs or prostitution.

“We do not disable the Internet and do not try to impose censorship. All we want is to protect ourselves from Internet crimes and cyber-attacks,” Chavez said in his weekly address at one of the national channels.

Under the new rules, the authors of the messages, owners of portals, and in some cases even ISPs will be fined if the information published by them will have fallen under the ban items. Venezuelan Chamber of Electronic Commerce criticized the parliament’s decision, saying it was another step towards censorship and web sites blockage.

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