One situation has to deal with censorship issues between Google and China. China has censored certain websites and doesn't allow for them to show up in the search engine on google.cn. But now, Google will no longer censor search results in China. Timothey B. Lee from the N.Y. Times noted that Google can do some good by "investing in improved circumvention technologies". He also stated that they can invest in more "extensive, robust, and user-friendly network of proxy servers", which wouldn't be a bad idea. Finally, he stated that Google can help by "embedding privacy-preserving and censorship-circumventing". He notes that a good example of this was "Google's decision to encryt Gmail access by default". But, in the end, the people in China would have to stand up against censorship in order for it to go away, which means that they would have to find ways to fight against their regime in China to gain rights to view information and sites on the Web freely.
The same situations are going on in Iran and Myanmar concerning media. Media is banned in Iran and in Myanmar. But, citizen journalists, or netizens, find ways to use media to reflect what's going on in their country. For example, a person in Iran may use a mobile camera to record protests, or to show certain wrong-doings and killings by their government and have it sent to a secure area to be seen across the world. Of course, doing this both these countries can be very dangerous. It can result in a person having their devices taken from them, and their lives would also be at risk as well. The images they show though will help show the oppression and corruption that goes on in these countries, and may force other countries to take action to force a democracy in these countries so the people can have more justice and freedom.
A great idea that Jared Newman mentioned on pcworld.com was the new YouTube Direct. This allows "amateur videographers and reporters to upload footage to news Web sites, then the sites will decide what's suitable for broadcast". This also helps to show what goes on in other countries because now the images would be shown on news channels across the world in excess with the Internet.
Free speech should be a right to everyone across the world. Also, people around the world should be able to have access to what's on the Web like people in many countries do as well.
Info on topic can be found at the following links:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/182362/youtube_direct_why_citizen_journalists_shouldnt_care.html
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/can-google-beat-china/
Additional footage on citizen journalists can be found at the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeOW79fG8Wo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKpj9aMtqUA&feature=channel
Image taken from the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/01/13/world/asia/13beijing-1.html
Terrone excellent information and commentary conducted by you; and I also agree that people should be allowed to have access to the internet; but some content that protects our vital interests should not be allowed (like how to make a dirty bomb)!
ReplyDeleteI do agree on that!!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know... I'd have to say that blocking "some" content will lead to blocking more like the Chinese government does to protect the "health" or "vital interest" of the nation. I think the issue of censoring is very sensitive since the content on the Internet is vast. People can make bombs at home and soon we would find ourselves banned from websites that list chemicals we might want to study for Chemistry class.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used those YouTube videos to make your post more informative and visually appealing. I don't see how YouTube Direct would be useful. News stations around the world already pull videos from social networking sites and YouTube, this Direct site would just be another website to pull from. Plus, the fact that there would be people to oversee which videos get broadcasted is like another form of censorship to me.