Comment is free: See no evil?:
"There's an inverse correlation between the regulation of speech and the freedom of a society. Trying to filter the internet is ridiculous and dangerous.
People say bad things online. They write vile lies about blameless worthies. They pen disgusting racist jeremiads, post gut-churning photos of sex acts committed against children, and more sexist and homophobic tripe than you could read - or stomach - in a lifetime. They post fraudulent offers, alarmist conspiracy theories, and dangerous web pages containing malicious, computer-hijacking code.
It's not hard to understand why companies, government, schools and parents would want to filter this kind of thing. Most of us don't want to see this stuff. Most of us don't want our kids to see this stuff - indeed, most of us don't want anyone to see this stuff.
But every filtering enterprise to date is a failure and a disaster, and it's my belief that every filtering effort we will ever field will be no less a failure and a disaster. These systems are failures because they continue to allow the bad stuff through. They're disasters because they block mountains of good stuff. Their proponents acknowledge both these facts, but treat them as secondary to the importance of trying to do something, or being seen to be trying to do something. Secondary to the theatrical and PR value of pretending to be solving the problem.
...The most enthusiastic customers for this technology are repressive governments, such as Syria, China, and the United Arab Emirates, regimes that cheerfully jail their citizens for thinking the wrong thoughts and uttering the wrong words...
The same companies that supply the world's torturers and totalitarians are also supplying our schools, workplaces, and cities. I edit a popular website, Boing Boing, that is widely censored by these firms. One firm, SmartFilter, regularly classifies us as "adult" because less than one per cent of the tens of thousands of posts we've made over the years feature thumbnail-sized nudes, including Michelangelo's David (Smartfilter maintains that any page containing David's willy is a "nudity" page).
...These firms are profiteers, waxing rich on the fears of the free world and the oppression of totalitarian states. They operate without transparency and without accountability...
There's an inverse correlation between the regulation of speech and the freedom of a society. In the new global world of censorware, we all live on Syria's internet, China's internet, filtered by companies whose first priority is to ensure that Beijing is happy with its work."
Pic via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Internet_map_1024.jpg
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