MPR's Midmorning discusses free speech on the Internet:
Google's purchase of YouTube has enabled the Web site to reach around the globe. But Google recently met its match in Turkey when the Turkish government blocked the site due to culturally inappropriate content. Midmorning asks how consumers, companies, and laws will adapt to emerging Internet technology.
I kind of wonder if that question wouldn't be better approached at a different (but equally high) level: How will societies and cultures evolve with even more emerging Internet technology? With all the development, aren't people even better able to discover work-arounds, and share globally?
Maybe I'm wrong to pose that question, but in any case I'll push back from the keyboard and pay attention to your comments. This is an open discussion - Gather post / image / video links are welcome. Your related articles or comments may be quoted as part of http://www.mpr.org/your_voice
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Julia Schrenkler
Interactive Producer
Minnesota Public Radio
American Public Media
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Comments: 9
The archive audio should be up soon.
p.s. Whoa, Susan. I know what that means to you!
I wanted the US troops to airdrop satelite dishes and tv's to the people in Iraq after the invasion so they could really see what was going on in the world. The Iraqi govenerment tried to tell the Iraqi people that American TV is just Jerry Springer and porn.
Just wait until the "Fairness Doctrine" gets re-instated, will they be able to go after the internet to help squelch dissenting views?
Can countries that don't believe in open and free information co-exist in a world with personal and ecomonic freedoms?
2+2=5
Freedom is slavery.
INSOC
The Ministry of Truth might be following me.
Yes.
Which may result in governments going to increasingly-extreme measures to try to control access to information.
I'm currently involved in several campaigns (Save the Net, NoCensorship, and NoCleanFeed) to try to stop the Australian government from creating a mandatory filter on all data coming into Australia via the internet. Not only is it a problem of censorship, it'll also dramatically slow down internet traffic within Australia. My connection is slow enough as it is. I don't need the government making it even slower because they want total control over what information I can and can't access online.
I am reminded of a study I read a while back which said that even neutral and sometimes positive e mail communications are most often taken to have a negative tone, because of the lack of context in online communication. I am also reminded (okay, I think in music) of a song Kathy Mattea has recorded called My Mind Is Not Your Junkyard.
A few people in government seem to think so. Although, as usual, they're making noises about how it's "for the children." So I guess they think they know what's best for me and for my children. How wonderful.