A Speak Turkey Original by Ross Lockwood
It has been said that nothing ever really dies, it merely transforms into some other shape or form. This has held true for internet censorship. Let’s take a look at how the government is trying to control what we say, and how they want to censor your voice.
First there was SOPA.
SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act was originally brought to the House on October 26, 2011. The stated goal of this legislation was the protection of intellectual copyrights. The bill would allow any copyright holder to shut down any website that they deem infringing on their property. Imagine if a torrent site in Europe was torrenting a movie owned by Universal Studios. This bill would not only allow Universal to stop the torrent, but it also gives search engines the permission to block the infringing website from showing up in results, block all money transfers through sites such as Paypal, and even total shut down of the site’s IP address.
Even more scary, all of this can be done without any warrant or judiciary process. This will surely lead to the creation of an internet “black list” in which sites can be shut down almost permanently without any defense for the offending site.
Visitors of offending sites will also be caught in the crossfire. This legislation will allow companies like Facebook and Google to read your personal files such as emails and wall post and censor any type of link or reference made to the offending website
Next there was PIPA.
PIPA, or the Protecting IP Act is the evil twin of SOPA(SOPA was started in the house and PIPA in the senate).
Now there is ACTA.
ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is the oldest of the three, and has been in development in 39 countries since 2008. Negations and signings of this deal have been going on behind closed doors, and by unelected officials and has only been brought into mainstream news through work by groups such an Anonymous and Wikileaks.
Under this legislation, all internet service providers MUST police and censor all data being sent through their network for material that infringes on the law. More so, the bill would make service providers legally responsible for all network traffic. If your internet service provider finds you guilty of using copyrighted material, you would then be shut off the internet, fined, and even jailed for your actions.
As crazy as this sounds, the bill also creates a global standard for prescription drug patents and even seed patents. This, like most government censorship and prohibition, will only lead to a health crisis and international food shortages.
As you can see, our freedom of speech, and the freedom of choice are in extreme peril. The internet was created for the spread of information to the masses, and it worked. And like everything else successful, the government now wants complete and total control. They already control the energy supply, auto manufacturing, and even the aviation industry, all with disastrous results. If let the government control our digital frontier, there is no way to measure what we as Americans will lose because of it.