Freedom on the Net 2016

Communities
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Since my freedom of speech thread got locked, I just want to post this report about internet freedom around the world.

We can't have a political discussion (not a complaint), we can just quietly watch internet freedom deteriorate.

Let us know what you find most interesting about this report. (before it also gets locked)

I'll go first, If you notice who funded the report you see their intent. They are not defending freedom and liberty, they are defending they're own business interests. So why did I show this particular article? because you can see this double standard everywhere. That is why everything is so messed up.

Edit:
I should have mentioned one thing because I don't want people to misunderstand me.
I didn't show this report to prove anything. If you see the usa it improved one point in relation to the year before. Even when you heard about censorship in twitter, reddit, fake news, etc.
I'm just trying to look under the surface.

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I've not read through it all yet, it's somewhat interesting, and does look at the correct thing which is government censorship. Though the censorship isn't specific to to the internet and that's maybe not made clear in that article. There's a big difference between the government defining what a person can and cannot do and a private site setting their dos and donts.

One thing they don't address is what is required. Some of the examples, photographers being arrested for example is why many counties have no go lists for people of different professions. So the problem is more than just internet censorship, it's just old laws applied to new technology.

The thing is as well is we do need security and we do need the ability to target and track down criminals. How we do that is a complex and interesting technical and policy discussion.

But it's also not easy to change when it may be going in the wrong direction.

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Yes, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and others will happily collude with the Chinese government, in order to expand their services into that country, if there is money to be made.

On the other hand, if we leave the Chinese people in total isolation, much as what we find in North Korea (it has been estimated that there are fewer IP addresses in use in all of North Korea than in a single city block in NYC - and these are obviously being used by the government and military, not the public), will those people ever come to the realization that their government's propaganda machine is as full of crap as it really is?

I would submit that the downward trends, as reported in the OP's attachment, are as a direct result of reactionary policies of the Chinese government, due to their public's ability, limited as it may be, to reach out through the Great Wall and interact with the rest of the world.

So, while I find the motivations of these companies to be thoroughly reprehensible, at the end of the day, I believe that their actions will eventually prove beneficial. Unfortunately many of these governments are firmly entrenched and significant freedom will likely only come at the expense of much bloodshed and misery for the people.

Sadly, these issues are not limited to China. There are too many other Statist governments, be they some flavor of Marxist, Fascist, Maoist, Socialist, or Theocratic, that take it upon themselves to oppress their people ... for the children. Yes, somehow it is always justified, because it is being done in the best interest of the people.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C. S. Lewis

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Good points c.s. lewis, I agree that although most of those companies only care about their financial gain, some good can come from working with authoritarian countries.

However, there are some things that are taken as matter of fact and need to be rethought. For example, it is not a surprise that western countries have more freedom, not only in the internet. But if you look at the map you can see that the worst countries are the countries where these same companies that sponsored the report have the lowest market share, while the countries where they have the highest market share got the best score.

I don't say this to defend those countries, where I know things are pretty bad, but just so it doesn't scape from sight. The problem with freedom is that it is always limited somewhat openly by some governments, or by financial interests in "democratic" governments.

To make my point clear, there can never be "freedom" unless it comes from the individual or community, and without keeping other entities from intervening. Eden ask what is required? Richard Stallman has a lot to say about this. Until now everything he says is ridiculed, I think the day will come when it's not going to be so ridiculous. (although I have to say that day isn't so near).

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Hi! Welcome to Twitter! Please fill out the info below:
USERNAME: DoorknobBob
Country: China
...
Meanwhile behind the scenes on some twitter DB table...
{isInChina:1}

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I would disagree. From a historical perspective, it is a huge surprise! As recently as 1633, Galileo was convicted of heresy, placed under house arrest and his books were banned! The European Enlightenment of the late 17th and early 18th centuries is an historical anomaly. In most societies this new thinking would have been branded heresy and the rabel would have been put down by the local potentate. In fact, this was a period of not only intellectual revolution, but of great bloodshed, during which time great monarchies were either reigned in and/or deposed.

The oppression that we observe in China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, etc., to varying degrees, is more typical of the human condition, throughout the ages, where an absolute ruler, or oligarchy, at their whim, literally has the power of life and death over its subjects.

The problem with liberty is that, once achieved, successive generations assume that liberty is the natural order of things; they fail to understand the sacrifices that achieved it and they do not remain ever vigilant in its defense. I fear that we shall not escape the fate of the great Greek and Roman civilizations and our progeny shall eventually fall into oppression and misery. The Chinese are an old and wise culture and in the fullness of time, we may well see our situations reversed. If this fate ever befalls us, let us hope that during our darkest hours, the Chinese people would offer their hand in friendship, irrespective of their personal motivations.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
- Thomas Jefferson

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There was a blasphemy conviction in Greece just 3-4 years ago with FB giving data to the police illegally to make the arrest....Just adding that for perspective....

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Thanks for pointing this out. In presumably enlightened countries today, we find the Left as well as other enemies of liberty, employing Newspeak tactics to discourage and punish any thinking, which deviates from the approved patterns of a self-appointed elite.

In places such as the USA we already have a firmly entrenched Thought Police at work in the legal system. If they determine that one had held impure/unsanctioned thoughts, while committing a crime, they are then accused of engaging in Hate Crime, the punishment for which, in addition to the social stigma, is significantly enhanced.

These forces are gaining traction in our "enlightened society" and they will directly lead to the erosion of our liberty and our fall into despotism. George Orwell was indeed prescient and we should heed his epic warning.

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Only in the US are you free to sign up for online services which install tracking cookies on your computer, allow you to freely enter non-written (or signed) terms of service (contracts) which surrender your privacy and sell your life data to organizations. Only in America do we give you the freedom to be dumb!

That my friends is freedumb

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You do not merely have the freedom to be dumb. Thanks to the state of public education in America, the population is intentionally being dumbed down, in order to facilitate its susceptibility to propaganda and ease of management by a ruling elite. We are producing a generation of sniveling nincompoops who require hugs and counseling to get through a typical day. Meanwhile, critical thinking has been sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.

Business is simply taking advantage of an already conveniently pliant population. Indignation should be focused where it rightly belongs.

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Implying that the "apogee" of greek and roman civilisation wasn't also a product of oppression and misery.
You're talking about empires. (alright, Athens in Plato's time and Rome at the time of the Republic were not empires yet, but they were still expansionist and colonialist in practice)

Romans fought to bring their peace to the rest of the world, not their freedom.
Gauls fought for their freedom. Gauls lost. Gauls ceased to exist.
It is not easy to have both peace and freedom.
What guarantees one man's freedom often comes at the expense of another's.

Your error is to think that liberty has been achieved.
To be "ever vigilant in its defense", you first ought to achieve it. Otherwise, you may be defending something vigilantly, but it's not liberty.

The fact that a privileged few are free is not a testament to the achievement of liberty.
It will be achieved when all have freed themselves, if it ever happens, if it's even possible.

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Also to mention for perspective on the event since you seem to correlate this with psudo-progressive PC culture problem.

It is not such a case. The whole blasphemy issue was brought up by the far-right/alt-right part of the political spectrum and through their influence the old blasphemy laws were reactivated and FB was used to identify the person. It was the left (the actual radical left, not the compromised center-left) that fought against that conviction.

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There are interesting points being raised but can we avoid blaming right/left so the thread doesn't get locked? It doesn't matter the side, we could say there are motives be it money, power, etc. to take more liberties away, at the same time technology keeps advancing and many times it is used for bad things.

Just like a knife can be used to many good things, it also be used to kill another person. The internet like other technologies enhances our life but there are people exploiting it.

As far as the historical and wider view of freedom. To see from the point of view of the east, they have a very different idea of freedom. People there are prone to follow authority, so their system is not as bad as we think from their perspective, some people even believe we in the west are somehow backwards. At the same time many people in the west think they are "free" while they are anything but, like it was already mentioned thanks to the education system and propaganda.

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Freedom House has new report about freedom in general.


It looks about the same as Freedom on the Net. I have to say again BS. This is just another narrow minded american view.

Here are some interesting views:

Many American portrayals of authoritarian China conjure up the image of nanny-state politicians and government censors, but the stress felt by most young Chinese people is more likely to come in the form of family pressures related to marriage and career choices.
Article

Is it possible that we, as foreigners, can feel more free in China than in our home countries? I chose to write this article because I feel it many ways, I am.
blog

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