Can The Internet Survive Censorship?
from the good-question dept
Going well with the article posted just beneath this one, Jonathan Zittrain, one of the authors of last week's study about what different countries censor online, has written an article discussing the implications of what they found. It puts some more context around his study. Basically, he points out that the internet has always been simply about moving data from endpoint to endpoint, with no concern for what the data is - and little to no blocking of any data within the network. Any filtering was done at the end computer. However, with the growth in countries that censor the internet, and other things like spam blocking systems, suddenly filtering is being done within the network itself. The problem is that it's very difficult to determine what should and shouldn't be filtered. He wonders if the strain of these attempted filters will cause more problems online than they solve.
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