US echoes "oppressive regimes" and moves to censor Web

Stan Beer
Friday, 12 May 2006 12:19

Your IT - Home IT

While a new study from Reporters Without Frontiers moans about oppressive regimes around the world censoring freedom of speech online, there is a growing movement among the more conservative elements in the US Government to censor the Web in the land of the free.

A bunch of Republican Party members, led by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, have introduced a bill into Congress that would prevent minors from accessing social networking sites at schools and public libraries. While the bill is aimed at sites like News Corporation's MySpace, Facebook and LiveJournal.com, which enable children to create their own websites, blogs and chatrooms, it is believed that the legislation could easily be extended to include more widely accessed sites like search engines and games sites.

There is no guarantee that the legislation will get up, even with a Republican majority in both houses. However, the fact that the legislation has been introduced should give cause for concern to all who value the free flow of information.

As the report from Reporters from Frontiers points out, Web censorship is growing on every continent. Countries like China and Vietnam have jailed dissidents who have voiced their opinions on the Web and the countries where freedom of the press is severely curtailed, such as Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Syria, all heavily censor the net.

Critics of the Fitzpatrick legislation say that his bill, called 'The Deleting Online Predators Act', curtails freedom of information as detailed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and that the protection of children from internet predators should be left to parents not the Government.

Others, however, like Fitzpatrick, a father of six, believe that the safety of children is paramount and therefore an overriding issue.

In its recent study, Reporters Without Frontiers criticised the US for making it easier to legally intercept online traffic and by filtering the internet in public libraries.