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Censorship 'changes face of net'

2007-06-07 13:10:31

Burmese child

Burma is among countries accused of repressing net freedoms

Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all

recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

The warning comes ahead of a conference organised by Amnesty, where victims of

repression will outline their plights.

The "virus of internet repression" has spread from a handful of countries to

dozens of governments, said the group.

Amnesty accused companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo of being

complicit in the problem.

Website closures

When challenged on their presence in countries such as China in the past, the

companies accused have always maintained that they were simply abiding by local

laws.

Amnesty is concerned that censorship is on the increase.

"The Chinese model of an internet that allows economic growth but not free

speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five

years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers,"

said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director.

"Unless we act on this issue, the internet could change beyond all recognition

in the years to come.

More and more governments are realising the utility of controlling what people

see online and major internet companies, in an attempt to expand their markets,

are colluding in these attempts," he said.

Google's Chinese homepage

Amnesty has criticised Google's presence in China

According to the latest Open Net Initiative report on internet filtering, at

least 25 countries now apply state-mandated net filtering including Azerbaijan,

Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian blogger

Filtering was only one aspect of internet repression, the group said. It added

that increasingly it was seeing "politically motivated" closures of websites

and net cafes, as well as threats and imprisonments.

Twenty-two-year-old Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman was

imprisoned for four years in February for insulting Islam and defaming the

President of Egypt.

Fellow Egyptian blogger Amr Gharbeia told the BBC that the internet was

allowing people to express themselves: "The web is creating a more open

society, it is allowing more people to speak out. It's only natural that upsets

some people."

The Amnesty conference - Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: The

Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace - will have some well-known

speakers including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

It marks the first anniversary of Amnesty's website irrepressible.info, which

is being relaunched to become an information hub for anyone interested in the

future of internet freedom.