Government Internet Censorship on the Rise

An upsetting trend looms over proposed national legislation and international agreements that threatens First Amendment rights on the internet. While public outcry has successfully hindered the advancement of such measures so far, attacks to our freedom of speech on the internet continue to increase according to Google.

A Fox News article entitled "Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship' outlines several recent examples of governments submitting requests to have material it finds "illegal, hateful, terrorism-promoting, or offensive" removed from the internet. While Google has refused the requests in some cases, they have been forced to comply in others.

Fox News: Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/18/google-sees-alarming-uptick-in-government-censorship/

Dorothy Chou, Google's senior policy analyst, wrote in a Sunday blog post, "It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect -- Western democracies not typically associated with censorship." In fact, despite a long history of championing Freedom of Speech, national applications more than doubled between the first six months of 2011 and the last six months of the year, second only to Brazil.

Just because PIPA and SOPA have been sidelined and opposition to ACTA continues, do not let down your guard. Your First Amendment rights on the internet are NOT sufficiently protected.
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