The Daily O’Collegian

The international organization Reporters without Borders, along with UNESCO, is inviting all Internet users around the world to demonstrate against online censorship today.

Protesters won’t be required to leave their homes, not even their seats. They can create an avatar at http://www.rsf.org, choose a message for their banner and take part in  online demonstrations representing countries with the most cases of cyber-censorship; Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

According to an RSF report, 63 Internet dissidents are imprisoned worldwide.

Internet censorship has become an social and political issue internationally. Countries with authoritarian regimes are not the only ones suppressing freedom of Internet access.

Although the First Amendment protects online free speech in the U.S., legislators have passed several procensorship laws after Sept. 11 in the name of  vigilance of national security. Organizations like the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have fought and won most of these laws in the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology, the U.S. Congress has introduced an unprecedented number of child safety and content regulation bills that have raised questions about the right to free speech of Internet users.

The S.2344: Internet Safety Act, which the Senate Judiciary Committee passed on Dec. 13, would authorize $10 million in grants each year for five years to support Internet safety education for both children and parents.

The bill concludes the best way to protect kids online is to combine education with the voluntary use of filtering and other technology tools to empower parents to decide what content their children should access.

According the RSF report, U.S. senators launch programs to combat Internet censorship in the world but refuse to stop U.S. companies from creating online surveillance and filtering equipment.

Sophia Cope, attorney for CDT, said in an article that the latest regulations of the Real ID Act, passed by Congress three years ago will expand the central database to all drivers and state ID card holders — virtually every American, which will empower existing technology.

“Following this path of least resistance fails to acknowledge that the security risks of a central ID database are enormous, as is the potential for abuse by government and business,” Cope said. The ID provisions could lead to unprecedented government surveillance.

The ACLU is promoting the reestablishment of Net Neutrality protections in Congress. Net Neutrality ensures that Internet users have the right to access lawful Web sites of their choice and to post lawful content, free of network providers who discriminate or degrade it.

The ACLU reported the Department of Justice issued a filing with the Federal Communications Commission opposing net neutrality last year.

“This filing supports telecoms in their efforts to roll back the clock on net neutrality, and would permit telecoms to censor or block users from desired content based on their ability to pay,” ACLU said.

The Internet is probably the only tool capable of showing us infinite perspectives about almost every matter and issue around the world.

It makes distances and boundaries between countries almost impalpable. Restrictions on Internet access and use are not only attempts to censor controversial speech but also to end the possibility of global reciprocity and unity that could lead to major changes in the world.