It is a known fact that censorship is alive and well on the internet. Many countries all over the world don’t allow access because of political, religious or ethical reasons. For example, in places like China, websites that are anti-governmental are blocked to all computers within the country. Recently, Google has even accused China of interfering with Gmail, the email service provided by Google. This censorship in China has been dubbed “the great firewall of China”. In other countries too, censorship is a reality. Early this year, during the election protests in Egypt, the entire internet was blocked for two days, an unprecedented act in the history of the internet.
But how widespread is censorship? Surely it is only in a few of the more extreme countries like Japan and Iran? Maybe not. Even first world countries have been accused of internet censorship, and it is not just countries that practise it. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo! Have also helped in censoring.
In Germany for example, where anything relating to the Nazis is outlawed, Google has blocked all Nazi site from being found. Yahoo! Also will review content, and remove anything they decide is not suitable for their business.
Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organisation that tries to allow freedom of the press worldwide has list of what it calls “Internet Enemies” as well as “Countries under Surveillance”. Internet Enemies include: Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Turkmenistan. Countries under surveillance include: Bahrain, Belarus, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and finally, even Australia and France.
What follows is a map showing these countries, that can be found on their website. Dark purple shows internet enemies, while light purple shows countries under surveillance.
Will we ever be without censorship? I doubt it. As long as companies and governments have secrets to hide, they will be preventing people from accessing and viewing information by whatever means necessary. What do you think?
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