1) Governments in over 40 countries have imposed various restrictions on online communication, claiming to protect children, prevent terrorism, and curb hate speech. 2) Authoritarian regimes seek to control information flows within their borders while reaping economic benefits of the internet. Censorship efforts help legitimize each other. 3) The document advocates for making internet access a truly global phenomenon free of censorship by pressuring governments to respect free expression rights online.

1. Google + Yahoo + Microsoft vs. Wikipedia Internet Censor ship

2. The freedom to speak without the freedom to read… China Internet Censorship

3. Governments around the world, claiming they want to protect children, thwart terrorists and silence racists and hate mongers, are rushing to eradicate freedom of expression on the Internet.

4. A wide range of restrictions on on-line communication have been put in place in at least forty countries : China Vietnam Saudi Arabia Iran India Singapore New Zealand North Korea Azerbaijan Bahrain Brazil Ethiopia Morocco Myanmar Oman Pakistan Syria Sudan Thailand Turkey Tunisia United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Yemen …

5. Authoritarian regimes are attempting to reconcile their eagerness to reap the economic benefits of Internet access with maintaining control over the flow of information inside their borders. Censorship efforts in the U.S. and Germany lend support to those in China, Singapore, and Iran, where censors target not only sexually explicit material and hate speech but also pro-democracy discussions and human rights education.

6. Take India for an example: The Government of India established the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, as a means to monitor all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from India. The primary purpose of CERT-IN is to handle Internet security and many institutions and agencies are allowed to call on it, including the home affairs ministry, courts, the intelligence services, the police and the head of the National Human Rights Commission. Most recently, about 1/15 of India blogs are blocked every month.

7. Take China for another example, Wiki listed a word list that is under Chinese government censorship; among the most frequent words are: Tibet Taiwan Falun Gong Tian’anmen Massacre … … Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping Hu Yaobang

8. Democratic countries that are pushing for the development of the GII will lack legitimacy in criticizing efforts by China to eliminate information that " hinders public order " or by Vietnam , where the " the cultural aspect " is cited as a reason to censor connections to pro-democracy discussions abroad. Internet knows no national boundaries: on-line censorship laws, in addition to trampling on the free expression rights of a nation's own citizens, threaten to chill expression globally and to impede the development of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) before it becomes a truly global phenomenon. GII Crap

9. The Internet has the potential to be a tremendous force for development by providing quick and inexpensive information, by encouraging discussion rather than violence, and by empowering citizens. But this potential can be realized only if it becomes a truly global effort. Policy makers must make every effort to ensure that internationally guaranteed rights to free expression are extended to on-line communication and call for the repeal of censorship legislation. Without such commitments, individuals face the danger of seeing their rights eroded by the very technologies they are embracing.

11. The search portal provided information to Chinese authorities that helped identify and prosecute several journalists and pro-democracy writers. Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison for forwarding a government email to the foreign press. The authorities had tried to warn journalists of the 'danger' posed by the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

12. CST ...Naturally, the public authorities cannot ignore the growing power and influence of the media of social communication and the advantages and risks which their use involves for the civic community and for its development and real perfecting. … Consequently they are called upon to perform their own positive function for the common good by encouraging every constructive expression, by supporting individual citizens and groups in defending the fundamental values of the person and of human society, and also by taking suitable steps to prevent the spread of what would harm the common heritage of values on which orderly civil progress is based… Octogesima Adveniens A Call to Action Paul VI, 1971

13. … The Christian has the duty to take part in this search and in the organization and life of political society. All particular activity must be placed within that wider society, and thereby it takes on the dimension of the common good… Here is the call to our ACTION… Octogesima Adveniens A Call to Action Paul VI, 1971 Internet censorship need to be put an end because its not only preventing whatever governments are upset about getting into their countries, but preventing their own people speaking to the world.

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16. Work Cited BBC NEWS . 12 May 2009 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5055170.stm>. CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING . 12 May 2009 <http://www.osjspm.org/catholic_social_teaching.aspx>. National Union of Journalists . 12 May 2009 <http://www.nuj.org.uk/ innerPagenuj.html?docid=266>. Privacy International . 12 May 2009 <http://www.privacyinternational.org/ article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-61390&als[theme]=Silenced%20Report>.