Difference between revisions of "Internet Control"

Revision as of 20:40, 13 December 2011

At the highest level, the Internet is just a collection of computers that have been setup to allow network connections via an agreed upon protocol, which is called the Internet Protocol (IP). Modern web browsers use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or the secure version, HTTP Secure (HTTPS). These protocols use IP for the transfer of web pages. Web browsers know how to use this protocol, and users can therefore use a web browser to connect to various websites, which represent those computers that have been setup to receive these kinds of HTTP and HTTPS connections. Because of the virtual nature of Internet browsing, it is difficult for any governing body to control what can and cannot be accessed or displayed on the Internet. (Back to index)

Background

Since the beginning of modern civilization, governing bodies have made special efforts to control the flow of information. For example, the United States (US) government keeps classified documents, which the US might not make public until a specified time period has passed from the time that the document was filed. In some countries, the government has complete control over what information is released via all public media outlets. However, the digital age has introduced a new medium for the transfer of information, the Internet.

Because the Internet is a distributed network of computers, it is difficult for any governing body to say what can and cannot be accessed or displayed on the Internet. Even if a government manages to control one outlet of information flow on the Internet, there are still millions of other ways that a user can get to the same information. In general, most other media outlets can be censored or controlled in some way by a local government. At the present time, the ethical use of the Internet is up to the user base. Because of this, Internet is the source of much social controversy in the information age.

Examples

China

The government of the People's Republic of China is has participated in some aggressive attempts at Internet censorship. The People's Republic of China regularly censors information regarding certain political events. Most notably, they have censored information regarding certain political demonstrations have been held at Tiananmen Square.

This type of censorship is generally made possible via aggressive filtering at government-owned internet service providers or ISPs. Furthermore, the Chinese government has even reached out to popular Internet search companies such as Google to make searches in China's locale censored for Chinese users.

United States

The most significant attempt at Internet traffic control in the United States was the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This bill was introduced in October of 2011, and it would allow the United States Department of Justice and copyright holders to attempt to acquire court orders to prevent websites from enabling copyright infringement. Under this bill, the accusing parties could get court orders to force internet service providers (ISP) to block access to infringing websites at the Domain Name System (DNS) level.

Corporate

In 2008 it emerged that Comcast, one of the nation's largest media companies, threatened to throttle (slow) the internet speeds of its customers that use the most bandwidth. A spokesperson for the company expressed that this move was for the "...overall good of our customers." Additionally, in August of 2008, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that the throttling on internet speeds for peer-to-peer sharing was illegal.

In February 2010, it was found that the ISP Verizon blocked access to some sites associated with 4chan. According to Verizon, this was done to ensure "no current risk of harm." Access to the site was restored to Verizon's customers within a few days.

Ethical Implications

Control over the internet has direct implications on the freedom of speech. While people do connect to the internet through Internet Service Providers, no one actually owns the internet. Restrictions on internet access also restrict free speech, which we are ethically obligated to promote. One ethical consideration is whether or not anyone should restrict what can and cannot be accessed through the internet, and who can and cannot access such content.

References

See Also