The age of an open Internet may be coming to an end. As states and nations move to mold and regulate the Internet to meet their own standards of decency, what was once referred to as the greatest communication and learning tool to ever be developed is becoming a partitioned, censored quagmire.
Earlier this year, Google received permission from the U.S. Department of Justice to post summaries of user data requests in its Transparency Report. As a part of this report — which defines how and why Google filters and reports on the data it collects — Google attests to governmental or court requests to remove access to content and pages thought to be offensive.
From June 31, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2012, the number of governmental removal requests have increased by more than 500, continuing a trend that began in June 2011. During the six-month period between June and December 2012, the number of court orders to remove defamatory content increased by nearly two-thirds.
In Afghanistan, YouTube was blocked in Afghanistan from Sept. 13, 2012 to Jan. 4, 2013, and is currently blocked in Bangladesh, China, Iran and Pakistan. In Argentina, a YouTube video that allegedly defamed the president by “depicting her in a compromising position” was requested to be restricted. Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. have all requested that clips of “Innocence of Muslims” be reviewed for violations of Google’s community guidelines. Denmark requested that a video criticizing a foreign ambassador be removed. Morocco is blocking Google Earth.
The idea that the Internet may no longer be free is a terrifying one. The power and freedom of the Internet have changed every aspect of the human existence. Communication around and throughout the world is instantaneous. Ideas can be freely published and widely disseminated. Resources can be shared, ideas discussed and face-to-face conversations can be held by individuals on opposite ends of the world in real-time. The Internet has made real the power of the idea.
Therein lies the problem. The 2010-2011 wave of revolutionary protests in the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring, was fueled by protesters linked together on Twitter and YouTube. From this seemingly disconnected group of Millennials, the ruling parties of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen were overturned. Major protests in Bahrain and Syria touched off, and Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan all saw significant disruptions. This reflects the realization seen in a 2012 report from Freedom House, “Freedom on the Net 2012,” in which no Middle Eastern nation was reported to have completely-uncensored Internet.
The war to control the Internet
Last month, the Russian government took steps to limit access to the Internet. A new telecommunications law required Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove materials that the country’s communications regulators found to be objectionable. Only YouTube, which is owned by Google, offered resistance. In February, Google filed a suit in Russian court resisting the government’s call to remove an instructional video explaining how to use makeup to apply a fake wound.
Supporters of the law believe that it, in its narrowly-focused way, will help stem the tide of child pornography and anarchist content — including content that promotes drug use and suicide — on the Internet. Opponents believe that this law will open channels for stiffer censorship. Many argue social networks that are being used to organize protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin may be targeted.
Facebook and Twitter have openly stated that it will cooperate with the Russian authorities in this matter. “Notable examples of where most services, including ours, will I.P.-restrict access for certain counties are in Germany” and in France, where it blocks content related to Holocaust denial, and in Turkey, where content defaming the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is blocked, Facebook said in its statement.
“Slow to respond”
Leaked cables hosted on WikiLeaks reveal that Finland and Denmark actively filter Internet traffic in their countries, mostly in an attempt to block child pornography. According to Freedom House, countries such as India, South Korea, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia partly censor their Internet traffic.
This group of nations, however, is only expected to grow. In December 2012, 89 nations of the 193-member United Nations General Assembly voted to approve an International Telecommunications Union treaty which would compel not only Internet service providers, but actual Internet companies to modify and disseminate content in accordance to the wishes of the host nation. According to the treaty, “All governments should have an equal role and responsibility for international Internet governance.” The treaty would make it harder for individual citizens to circumnavigate national firewalls.
The U.S. government adamantly opposes this treaty, arguing it gives authoritarian governments too much of a free hand in restricting Internet access to its citizens. There is now a real fear that because the U.S. and the rest of the Western world were slow to recognize this threat to free expression, the era of the uncensored Internet may be twilighting.
Robert McDowell, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, summarized concerns. “Consumers everywhere will ultimately pay the price for this power grab as engineers and entrepreneurs try to navigate this new era of an internationally politicized Internet,” he said. “Let’s never be slow to respond again.”