Control

The topic for this week in Social Media Virtual Worlds seems to be control and censorship of the internet. We were assigned to read three different articles related to the topic. The articles included 

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Evolving_Landscape_of_Internet_Control_3.pdf

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/08/building_in_sur.html

http://www.code-is-law.org/preface_excerpt.html

After reading all three articles, I began to think of how much would be different if the United States had more restrictions for internet and what my stand was on the regulations in general. 

Just think about what the internet would be like if we had similar restrictions as China. We would not be able to search "sensitive topics" that the government considered inappropriate.  Our whole collection of information from the internet would possibly be biased because we would not be getting the whole truth. The government could consider parts of the truth to be offensive and restrict view of the topics. If this were to happen, our society would be unable to have as much control and free speech as we do today. Social media sites would probably be deleted. The internet as we know it would be a lot different if we were subjected to the same restrictions as China. Because of this, I believe the internet should be a place were there is no government regulation. 

While considering my stand on this issue, a friend suggested I read this article http://www.scribd.com/doc/99220534/The-Technology-Revolution. The main idea of the article was internet should be kept without government regulation. Another main point was restricting the internet reduces our freedoms and the ideas of our founders. Since the internet has done well and grown without the interference of government, it should continue to be left out. I agree with this. The internet was designed as a place to express thoughts and ideas without the fear of being persecuted. If the government were to intervene, who knows how different and controlling everything would be. Hopefully, the internet will never be subjected to government regulation as it is in China and other countries around the world.