War on the internet

From Issuepedia

Contents 1 About 2 Links 2.1 Projects 2.2 Filed Links

[edit] About

As the internet has entered the general public awareness and people have begun to depend upon it as a means of communication, and to depend less upon the traditional news sources, powermongers have slowly come to realize the tremendous threat potential it has for them. No longer can they succeed in suppressing stories by top-down control of the media; on the internet, any individual can ultimately spread the word to as many people as necessary.

[edit] Links

[edit] Projects

• PeaceFire is a dual-purposed site:
  • shows how site-blocking software "for the protection of children" is subject to abuse as a device for censorship
  • provides practical tips for circumventing such software
• Megaphone desktop tool allows individual users to "slave" their voting and posting to a central server, so that votes and posts are made on their behalf without exposing the users to the actual arguments under discussion. While participation is entirely voluntary, use of this tool (especially given that it does not offer users the choice of whether to take action in each case, much less which action to take) violates the "citizen participation" spirit of the internet.

[edit] Filed Links

[refresh]

• 2010-07-21 :more:talk: Google Tells FTC Enforcing “Hot News” Would Create a Hot Mess § “The draft document includes proposed changes to intellectual property laws to protect news entities from aggregators (such as Google News), a loosening of anti-trust laws to allow media outlets to collaborate on paywalls and other methods of charging for the news, as well as a proposal for government subsidization of the industry.” more...
• 2010-07-10 :more:talk: Anti-competition broadband bill killed again § “Good news: Senator Hoyle's anti-competition broadband bill is dead!” more...
• 2010-04-06 :more:talk: US Court Rules Against FCC on 'Net Neutrality' § “A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.” more...
• 2010-03-27 :more:talk: The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters § “A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France -- in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan.” more...
• 2010-03-24 :more:talk: ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws § “The United States is nudging the international community to develop protocols to suspend the internet connections of customers caught downloading copyrighted works, according to a leaked draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.” more...
• 2010-01-15 :more:talk: Obama confidant's spine-chilling proposal § “In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems "false conspiracy theories" about the Government.” more...
• 2009-11-20 :more:talk: Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying, and worse. Much, much worse. § “Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as many new penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he's planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of.” more...
• 2009-11-18 :more:talk: How we discovered Verizon’s Spamdetector could be twisted into a disguise for censorship! § “According to the laws of Verizon Central, once you’ve been labeled spam, there is only one course of action and it goes like this:...” more...
• 2009-09-29 :more:talk: Hanging citizen journalists out to dry - shield-law amendment excludes unpaid bloggers § The Free Flow of Information Act is intended to prevent journalists from being forced to divulge confidential sources, except in cases such as witnessing crimes or acts of terrorism -- but specifically excludes citizen journalists (aka bloggers) from being considered as "journalists", and would enshrine this definition in federal law. more...
• 2009-04-25 :more:talk: Pirate Bay case: Internet group attacks websites in "Operation Baylout" § “Anonymous, the loosely defined online activist group most known for organizing mass protests against the Church of Scientology, has begun a campaign against the websites of entities associated with the prosecution in the Pirate Bay Trial...” more...
• 2009-04-14 :more:talk: Cybersecurity Act would give president power to 'shut down' Internet § “A recently proposed but little-noticed Senate bill would allow the federal government to shut down the Internet in times of declared emergency, and enables unprecedented federal oversight of private network administration.” more...
• 2009-03-28 :more:talk: Canadians find vast computer spy network § “Canadian researchers have uncovered a vast electronic spying operation that infiltrated computers and stole documents from government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama...” more...
• 2009-03-17 :more:talk: Australian Government adds Wikileaks to banned website list § “The Australian communications regulator has issued a stark warning that websites who link out to 'banned' hyperlinks are liable to fine of up to Aus $11,000 a day.” This list now includes WikiLeaks, a site crucial in the fight against abuses of power. more...
• 2009-02-16 :more:talk: Join New Zealand Internet blackout protest against insane copyright law § “Reason didn't work and the Parliamentary process failed, which is why we in New Zealand now have arguably the world's harshest copyright enforcement law.” more...
• 2008-07-03_Google_must_divulge_YouTube_log
• 2008-07-03_Bloggers_And_Blasphemy:_Iran_May_Update_An_Outdated_—_And_Outrageous_—_Law
• 2008-05-09_Report_Pushes_Passage_Of_Thought_Crimes_Bill
• 2008-04-23_More_Internet_content_blacklisted_in_Europe
• 2008-04-09_How_the_iPhone_is_killing_the_'Net
• 2008-03-12_Why_We're_Powerless_To_Resist_Grazing_On_Endless_Web_Data
• 2008-03-11_GoDaddy_Silences_Police-Watchdog_Site_RateMyCop.com
• 2007-10-27_FOX_News_Labels_Dissent_As_Anarchy
• 2006-09-23 :more:talk: Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat § “A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.” ... “It also examines how the Internet has helped spread jihadist ideology, and how cyberspace has become a haven for terrorist operatives who no longer have geographical refuges in countries like Afghanistan.” more...
• 2005-10-09_The_World_Wide_Web_of_Bureaucrats
• 2005-07-16 :more:talk: How Comcast Censors Political Content § “We didn't know it, but for the past week, anyone using Comcast has been unable to receive any Email with "www.afterdowningstreet.org" in the body of the Email. That has included every Email from me, since that was in my signature at the bottom of every Email I sent. And it included any Email linking people to any information about the upcoming events.” more...