NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Congress Wants Google to Censor Search Results, ISPs to Block Sites -- To Protect Hollywood?
Congress Wants Google to Censor Search Results,
ISPs to Block Sites -- To Protect Hollywood?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000827.html
"Another witness, analyst Daniel Castro of The Information
Technology & Innovation Foundation, gave Conyers some of the
specifics he was looking for: Congress should simply create
blacklist of sites, then force ISPs to block them and tell
search engines to remove them from lists of search results."
- (Full Article at: http://j.mp/igmDHn [paidContent])
While this particular idiocy is somewhat different than the specific
topic I discussed recently in "Deleting History: Why Governments
Demand Google Censor the Truth" ( http://j.mp/dOE4Vw [Lauren's Blog] ),
many of the same factors are in play.
It's clear that the U.S. is willing to use unilateral powers to try
shut down domain names (regardless of whether the associated sites are
hosted in the U.S. or not), wants an ISP site blacklist, and wants to
tell Google and other search engines what they can or cannot show in
their search results. And since Congress is now raising protecting
the entertainment industry to the same level of criticality as
stopping c-porn, we can be sure that Congress will also try to prevent
any public lists from being created of what exactly has been blocked.
It's sort of like "double secret probation" from "Animal House" -- but
totally unfunny.
Even if Google and ISPs went along with this (likely after significant
litigation, and assuming that courts confirmed this anti-American
censorship), Congress' purpose will fail. The "pirate sites" in
question will move further underground, but will always be able to
find hosting. There will always be sites that tell where to find the
associated links. And while Congress may recursively attempt to shut
down sites that link to sites that themselves link to sites that
contain pirate materials -- and so on -- it will be a losing battle --
made all the more fascinating to larger numbers of Internet users by
the additional subterfuge involved.
But of course, Congress isn't only interested in blacklisting pirate
sites and sites that help users find pirate sites. What Congress
really wants is a flexible ISP and search engine blacklisting regime
that could be employed to try block any content that Congress
designates as undesirable or inappropriate. You can be sure that talk
of c-porn and piracy is merely the foot in the door.
The vast majority of Internet users don't look at c-porn, and they
don't download pirated movies. Freedom-loving Internet users around
the world should be gearing up now to fight Congress (and their own
domestic governments) that are desperately trying to mold the Internet
into the ultimate mechanism of government-mandated information
control and censorship.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com