Governments of many countries passed and about to pass many laws resticting the freedom of the internet. SOAP law was adopted last year (or perhaps it wasn't. There were lots of polemic about it) . Law #89417-6 was passed in Russia this summer. And one more international law is being discussed at the moment. And this is what pushed me to write the post on this topic. I don't know about American and international laws much. But I was quite concerned about the Russian law, so I know something about it.
This law seem to have a good purpose of protecting chilfren from pornography and things like this. But in fact the government's desire to control and restrain Internet. Internet is almost the only thing which is almost not controlled by the government. It's the most liberal zone of Russian life. Hardly every popular TV chanel is governmental; the most popular newspapers and broadcasting stations are pro-government as well. You can be arrested of repressed easily for going for a protest in the street. However, you should "try hard" in order to be repressed for doing something on the Internet. Moreover, Internet is the place where most liberal oppositional ideas and views are spread. People really communicate there. Most opposition leader in Russia became popular via internet. Primiraly via blogs, twitters and social networks. For example, if some post is shared 300 times on facebook or vk.com it means that all almost Russian internet users know about it (it isn't statistics but just my estimation).
So, Internet is the only indepandent thing in Russia and probably in the whole world. And I'm reallyy glad it still excists! It's too bad government is trying to restrain it. This laws means that if some URL isn't good and it contains some harmful info, government can ban the whole site! And of course, noone can really check every URL ( I mean the creators and head of a site). They do it, but still it's very hard. It's true that Internet can harm people, but it means that we should make it better and "cleaner". So, I really hope that the laws restraining the freedom in the Internet won't be passed in our country and the whole world anymore!
It's funny, I was just thinking about this issue. I couldn't get any of the students' blogs to work today. I kept getting "Internet Explorer cannot display this page." However, after going through a VPN server in the U.S. that makes my IP look like I'm back there, I can look at the blogs. I wondered if it had to do something with censorship, or if it's just a server problem here for the Blogger site. Perhaps your post shut down Russian Blogger! Haha, just kidding. You made some good points, though.
ОтветитьУдалитьHaha)) It seems like police is about to arrest me)
УдалитьI am scared of the possible disappearence of this type of freedom. Russian governments in last years carried out some non-democratical reforms, and controlling the internet can be a good idea for the future laws. I understand all the disadvantages of the information of low quality and morality, but I don't think that this is enough reason to "kill the freedom". However, I think that some time or other such reform will be carried out.
ОтветитьУдалитьI absolutely agree with you in this issue. I think, not government, but parents should decide what children are allowed to watch in Internet and what not. Why other people shouldn't watch some videos if they are adults and can decide what they should do, and what shouldn't themselves. The same opinion I have about TV censorю
ОтветитьУдалитьTim, there are no words that can explain how I agree with ours ideas about the Internet freedom. I'm sad a little at myself that I have not written the post about this topic. It is true that Internet is the valuable place for discussions. The law can make every discussion outside the law.
ОтветитьУдалитьDon't be upset about it! You'll have the whole next semester for writing something on this topic =)
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