The MIT Technology Review (HT: Wretchard) reports that the internet is increasingly unfree and censored:

China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia remain the top blockers. Each nation filters not just pornography, but also a wide range of political, human-rights, religious, and cultural sites deemed subversive by those countries’ governments. Other countries are more selective in what they let citizens see or not see. Syria and Tunisia, for example, filter a great deal of political content, while Burma and Pakistan target websites that pertain to national-security issues.

Wretchard notes: Just as churches are prohibited in Saudi Arabia while mosques are protected in the West, the Jihad may eventually be broadcast from certain countries and their reception in the West guaranteed as a “right” while anyone who mounts a reply will not only be blocked, but charged with “hate speech”. Indeed.

We have previously noted here that many sites within the US have been inappropriately blocked by being branded as “hate speech.” This trend, both domestically and internationally, looks likely to only get worse.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 6:27 am and is filed under China, General, Left of Left, New Media, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.