Thursday, September 03, 2009
Give us Cyberspace Liberty
The mid 90's saw the rapid rise of the phenomenon known as the internet. This phenomenon that was once used exclusively by scientists and mathematicians to share data was now making its way to the desk of the average Joe. This new way of sharing information and ideas was a revolution, a revolution some people felt was been cut down by the government.
John Perry Barlow, a poet and political activist decided to share his ideas for liberty on the internet with the world in the form of a poem. His title, " A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace", is reminiscent to that of the American Declaration of Independence, stating his disapproval the government's involvement with the internet. This is evident in his writing,
"We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity".I thought it was interesting how he mentioned specific countries that he felt were stifling the internet, so i did a little research on internet censorship and found some interesting facts. For one , i found out that China is on a black list of enemies of the internet, primarily because of their history of political censorship. I also found out that the other counties he mentioned such as Italy and France have nominal internet censorship which are mainly in order to counteract things like racism and child pornography.
Comments:
<< Home
A good post. This manifesto seems very idealistic given the way in which governments are trying to control the web today.
Post a Comment
<< Home