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Internet Bodies Engage in Illegal Censorship and Free Speech on the Web Continues to Erode

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Summary: The Internet as a platform for free speech is no more; the law is being bypassed to silence opposing voices

THE Internet is broken. ICANN should know this because domains are being censored now, despite no guilt established [1]. Anonymity is being impeded by the NSA, the FBI, and other parties, including some governments [2]. Freedom of speech is being compromised and intimidation against sites is now a tool for achieving this [3]. When it comes to surveillance sites, such as Facebook, censorship goes even further [4]. As one story shows us [5], merely publishing a list of names can now lead to legal abuse [5]. Rather than deal with abuse of the law (financial fraud) we have our "law enforcement" bodies dealing with those who speak about it. This is wrong. Censorship of the Web has been a hot topic in the UK recently and judging by where things are heading, the Internet needs a censorship-resistant alternative.



Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Seized Torrent Domains Must Be Released Says Domain Registrar
    As the fallout from this week’s seizure of file-sharing domains continues, it’s now been revealed that the registrars involved could now be exposing themselves to disciplinary action by IP address and DNS body ICANN. With the police now confirming to TorrentFreak that the action by the registrars was voluntary and based only on a “potential” breach of terms and conditions, it now appears that affected registrars must allow seized domains to be released.


  2. Asking the EU Commission to stop blocking Tor
  3. EU court holds news website liable for readers' comments


  4. Facebook Gives ‘Social Fixer’ Ultimatum
    Things aren’t going well for Matt Kruse, the developer of the über-popular Social Fixer browser extension which gives users control over how their Facebook pages and news feeds appear to them. It works within the browser and doesn’t affect the experience of anyone on Facebook other than the user. With it, status updates can be tabbed, items can be filtered, and it allows hiding or blocking sponsored stories and other advertising that runs through the news feed.


  5. Greece retries journalist who leaked 'Lagarde list' of suspected tax evaders
    Kostas Vaxevanis published details of of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with cash deposits in Switzerland


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