Stop Censorships

Internet Censorship: Chatham House Begins Insidious Initiative for Global Internet Governance

January of this year marked the beginning of a new Global Commission on Internet Governance, which was launched by Chatham House in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The commission will be chaired by the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who will lead a team of 25 members tasked to study the future prospects of internet governance over the next 2 years. A benign, non-threatening looking man who has served on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation, Bildt is the perfect character to be the face of a new initiative which could threaten the internet as we know it. Read More!

Online Privacy Compromised

Today, in the age of the Internet, privacy and security are increasingly crucial concerns for citizens, legislators, and corporations. To understand the intertwined nature of contemporary technology, politics, and business and to see just how ubiquitous this relationship has become in society, it is useful to examine the issue of copyright violation, specifically online piracy. This problem, as well as the search for viable solutions pertaining to it, is not only an intriguing concept in and of itself, but also a synecdoche for the many obstacles we face entering the 21st century. So far, several solutions have been proposed in the United States Congress aimed at stopping online piracy. Among these are the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). In January of 2012, SOPA and PIPA were shelved indefinitely by the Senate due to concerns regarding privacy. This postponement occurred following widespread protest from several major websites, including Google, Reddit and Wikipedia. Both major political parties were concerned that SOPA and PIPA did not find a “balance between protecting Americans’ intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the Internet” (Williams). If passed through the Senate, these bills would allow the government to obtain any information they desire if it relates to stopping a case of copyright infringement. This would include unlimited access to personal data such as emails, passwords, credit card numbers, and much more. While the government looking through personal content during a criminal case is not a new concept, it has always taken place with a search warrant.Read More!