Internet and Politics - Despotic Regimes and Internet Censorship :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The internet is undoable to censor, right? Not if you atomic number 18 a despotic regime throwing tout ensemble your resources into it. You wont stop everyone and everything, but if the aim is to prevent enough citizens from getting plain speech to topple your regime, then you can succeed. For a start, people cant nettle the network using just brainwaves. They need a computer machine- plan of attackible to a wired or wireless phone line. Stopping somebody getting find to that, and you stop their profits. Most countries ruled by tyrannical regimes atomic number 18 poor and have low telephone penetration. There are fewer than nine phone lines per thousand people in China, and trine in Vietnam. It is pretty obvious that unlike people in parliamentary nations, few Vietnamese or Chinese can walk into their cultivation room and log on. Some office workers might have access at work, but individual will likely walk by ult as they are surfing. The majority of the population must go to cyberspace cafs. It was at an Internet caf in Hanoi that Vietnamese Internet heterodox Le Chi Quang was caught by the secret police in February 2002, aft(prenominal)(prenominal) the state-owned Internet backbone company FTP spotted Quang, who had posted an obligate criticising Hanois secret donating of land near the border to appease the Chinese regime. In June that year, the regime told all in all Internet caf owners to report on customers accessing stop deaded sites. The homogeneous(p) thing happened in the South. In Saigon in March 2003, democracy active Dr Nguyen Dan Que, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was caught, again at an Internet caf. some(prenominal) Quang and Que are presently in prison. Even if every household had a telephone and everyone had a computer, costless speech could still be ramed. Because the Internet backbones in these countries are controlled by the Communist Parties, it is quite easy for them to block sites. As the Nets secret police pu t on more(prenominal) and more filters, Net-literate dissidents find more and more ways to work around them. barely as all this goes on, it gets harder and harder for less Net-literate people to play the game. The effect, then, is that only a small minority of the population can get around the authorities. And revolutions cannot be started and maintained by small minorities. For democracy to be built up in these countries, millions of their ordinary citizens must be able to be loose in their daily life to concepts of democracy and freedom.Internet and Politics - bossy Regimes and Internet Censorship Exploratory Essays Research PapersThe Internet is hopeless to censor, right? Not if you are a despotic regime throwing all your resources into it. You wont stop everyone and everything, but if the aim is to prevent enough citizens from getting free speech to topple your regime, then you can succeed. For a start, people cant access the Internet using just brainwaves. They need a computer machine-accessible to a wired or wireless phone line. Stopping someone getting access to that, and you stop their Internet. Most countries ruled by disdainful regimes are poor and have low telephone penetration. There are fewer than nine phone lines per thousand people in China, and common chord in Vietnam. It is pretty obvious that unlike people in antiauthoritarian nations, few Vietnamese or Chinese can walk into their necessitate room and log on. Some office workers might have access at work, but someone will likely walk past as they are surfing. The majority of the population must go to Internet cafs. It was at an Internet caf in Hanoi that Vietnamese Internet dissident Le Chi Quang was caught by the secret police in February 2002, after the state-owned Internet backbone company FTP spotted Quang, who had posted an expression criticising Hanois secret donating of land near the border to appease the Chinese regime. In June that year, the regime told all Internet c af owners to report on customers accessing blocked sites. The same thing happened in the South. In Saigon in March 2003, democracy activist Dr Nguyen Dan Que, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was caught, again at an Internet caf. two Quang and Que are presently in prison. Even if every household had a telephone and everyone had a computer, free speech could still be blocked. Because the Internet backbones in these countries are controlled by the Communist Parties, it is quite easy for them to block sites. As the Nets secret police put on more and more filters, Net-literate dissidents find more and more ways to work around them. entirely as all this goes on, it gets harder and harder for less Net-literate people to play the game. The effect, then, is that only a small minority of the population can get around the authorities. And revolutions cannot be started and maintained by small minorities. For democracy to be built up in these countries, millions of their ordinary citizens must b e able to be exposed in their daily life to concepts of democracy and freedom.