A World Being Censored
Historic Russian Censorship of Notes of My Life by N.I. Grech, 1886 (photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In a world where everyone creates something, it is often a fine line between what is appropriate and what is necessary. The ‘eye of the beholder’ plays an important part in this decision-making process, which is what makes censorship and content policing such a hit-or-miss action. When one of the decision-makers happens to be the subject of a particular creation, then how does fairness come into play, especially if the decision-maker has a bigger influence on such things as legality and public sentiment?
Our economic world is unraveling at an alarming rate, and our worldwide governments are literally grasping at straw men to pass legislations and other complimentary actions. There seems to be little consideration for basic human rights in their decisions, so we have to be even more vigilant in watching over their actions and calling them out when they are violating any human right in part or whole. A limited benefit to one party cannot and should not supersede a life-long benefit to all.
When a government becomes so caustic in their interpretation of freedom, then the worst possible outcomes occur. The Middle East has been rocked by so much violence as a worn-out populace struggles to recapture their humanity at all costs. Even a battle that was hard-fought and hard-won in Egypt did little to better their circumstances, as once again the military took over the government and stalled the inevitable change to a more democratic way of existence. Too many people are hurt and dying from what many see as a form of institutional corruption. And the same is happening with difference levels and types of circumstances around the world, making human rights the loudest conversation that needs to be happening. When human rights can be callously violated because of economic circumstance, then we are only one step away from leaving the Age of Enlightenment and stepping back into the darkness where censorship can hide any atrocity.
As we keep our discussions centered only on the economy, which of course is a vital engine for prosperity, we have lost our focus on the big picture because of all the noise that comes from industries who have a strangle-hold on economic policies which are literally drowning out social policy. The major players in the Western world who once stood proudly on their marble stands are now fighting to keep their standings, and ignoring the potential pitfalls that their liberally-applied repairs might induce. But the Western World is most definitely not alone in their irresponsible actions.
On November 22, South Africa passed the much-hated Protection of Information Bill, otherwise known as the ‘secrecy bill’ that will allow the government to protect state secrets by enforcing censorship action on the media. The Internet tried to protest #Black Tuesday, but didn’t get much of a chance because the bill was passed without hesitation. In some countries like China, media censorship is an everyday norm. It will be scary if this becomes the norm everywhere.
The people of the United States have been fighting two battles to protect Internet freedom. The Protect IP Act (S.968) has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, but thankfully Senator Wyden put a hold on it and is planning to filibuster with the help of over 60,000 signatures (and growing) by the American populace. These signatures are a direct result of a campaign, which can be found at http://stopcensorship.org/, that Senator Wyden and Demand Progress are waging together in order to stop yet another assault on Internet censorship. But in a reckless stab at censorship in the name of economics, SOPA (HR3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act) is making its way through the House of Representatives, even though there is a global outcry against it because it could literally break the Internet.
Senator Wyden Speaks Against Protect IP and SOPA:
This alarming censorship trend has grown as the United States joined Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, and Sweden in the list of governments who are pushing for some level of Internet censorship (source: EFA - 2002). But censorship also goes hand-in-hand with surveillance and institutional hacking, which are reaching new highs by corporations and governments. Clearly, we need to look carefully at many of our laws to illuminate potential opportunity for a strike against human rights, so that we can ensure that our governments use a more balanced approach that protects the people as well as the vehicle for prosperity.
Although the Internet has become the global communication platform, it is only one of the final landing places of information and creation. The people are ultimately responsible for the Internet’s content as they are the most prolific content creators, so they must be the ones who figure out the best way to ensure everyone’s safety while still allowing everyone’s unfettered enjoyment of the content. Censorship stops the learning process, and has to be fought so that we can continue to learn about both bad and good through our own personal education.
For all of their disruption, groups like Wikileaks and Anonymous are actually helping to uncover actions that governments and companies around the world are taking to control the dissemination of ‘classified’ information in order to control global actions that go against their own interests. And frankly, a lot of the information that is coming out doesn’t put much of the actions of these players into a good light, and is showing a pattern of abuse that seems to be growing on a daily basis.
The world populace doesn’t share the same interests in the games that these institutions play in the name of money and power, because these are the two things that most people lack. It’s no longer a level playing field, as our laws and our liberties have been compromised for a world standing. The names of Peter David Gibson, Ashley Rhodes, Christopher Weatherhead, and Bradley Manning are just some of the smaller players in this on-going battle to shine a light on perceived wrongs by those who speak of legality in actions. Even the trials of those players caught in government roundups will have to be watched closely to see just how far both sides are willing to go to protect our freedoms which are now being threatened by forces known and unknown.
The economy is a key to our existence, and every institution has a stake in it. Recently, Benetton took on the world leaders with an ad campaign that tried to get people to see that ideologies needed to be supplanted by love. It was a clever yet incendiary campaign that upset the Vatican, who is now taking legal action to stop the use of the photo that contains the Pope kissing the Imam. Topics such as this are difficult to discuss because bias is a major factor in deciding the appropriateness of a creation. But at what point does a human right become supplanted by someone’s personal belief? That answer should be…NEVER.
Closeup of Tahrir Square on November 18, 2011 (photo credit: Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images) |
We are in for a rough ride for the next decade or more if we do not see that personal liberties have to be carefully balanced against the protection of our entire society and humanity. Growth is not only limited to economics, especially when it means that we’re removing a basic human right just so someone’s profit margin can grow. Our world doesn’t run on a balance sheet. The scorecard has to take a lot more into consideration if we’re to have a prosperous future where mankind’s and the planet’s well-being are the primary motivators behind every unified thought and action that we take together. We should expect nothing less than that.
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