ISYS100 Research Essay internet censorship laptop PDF

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This essay was devised for semester 1, 2018. It depicts the internet censorship that happens around the world and its relation to IT and society. ...

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ISYS100 Assignment

ISYS100 Research Essay Q3. Internet Censorship has changed over the last 5 years. Considering this, discuss how censorship can be used for positive and negative effects in society. The level of internet censorship has risen at unfathomable rates as the myriad of technological advances has become more efficient and globally inclusive in today’s society. These advancements have connected the better part of communities and IT has become one of the highest energy consumption sectors within the world. As electronic devices such computers and mobile phones have become more innovative such as the iPhone X and Samsung S9, the internet has devolved into a platform for tremendous amounts of information to transfer easily from one user to the other. Internet censorship refers to the control or suppression of what can be accessed, seen and published on the internet. With the increasing quantities of information being available to users on a global concept, governments have created blocks that disable certain countries availability to specific types of information. Countries such as North Korea, China, Iran and Turkey are just a few that are among many to have enforced this type of control on their communities. In this research paper, I will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of internet censorship within a society, and the repercussions either option delegates onto future generations. The eventual success of internet censorship is hard to determine as the results can differ from group to group as motivations and policies are not always approached in the same way. There are a variety of reasons that Governing bodies will decide to attempt internet censorship and obtain certain information from online communities. OpenNet Initiative is a global website that dedicates itself to analysing censorship worldwide

ISYS100 Assignment and divides the motives into four main categories such as political, social, conflict/security and internet tools (OpenNet Initiative). Other sources claim that there are ethical and commercial reasons that censorship is acclaimed in a number of countries. These factors can become interchangeable and in a global sense, governing bodies will normally have a combination of factors leading to censorship (Refer to Appendix 1). With the largest percentage of censored content on the internet referring to a political parties and government politics (Refer to Appendix 2). The political reasons for a governing body to employ internet censorship are to retain control over freedom of speech, control the impact of information being transferred in society, diminish the defence of an opposition party, weaken critical thought and maintain a small level of criticism. Many countries are supervising and controlling the internet traffic and information that is available for the communities online. An example of internet censorship in a political sense is China and its great firewall (Refer to Appendix 3). China is a socialist nation that has a single-party government organisation and holds a pervasive amount of intervention in internet growth and global connection. The great firewall monitors and regulates a multidimensional system that controls internet usage, legal domains, commercials and infrastructure (Liang & Lu, 2010). There are nine comprehensive categories that are censored throughout the entire country such as content that opposes basic principles placed in the Constitution; the government and social system; undermines country authority and disrupts unity within the community; promotes ethnic or cultural discrimination; spreads feudalism misconceptions such as pornography, obscenity, murder or terrorism; disturbs social classes and spreads rumours; insults or belittles others; contains forbidden substances by law; and damages the interest or reputation of the country (Cheung, 2006). Some examples of popular websites that are forbidden in China are Facebook, YouTube and Google which is a result of not being

ISYS100 Assignment able to meet government criteria. A disregard for these rules and regulations in an online concept can result in severe consequences such as imprisonment, or execution. China has been found to use another system that filters domestic surveillance known as the Golden Shield (The Economist, 2013). As the systems in China have evolved and increased in complexity, the estimated cost for this system is hundreds of millions however the exact figure is unknown. A case demonstrating the seriousness of political censorship was in 1999 in the prosecution of Lin Hai. Lin Hai was sentenced to two years in prison (Klotz, 2003) because he allegedly committed state subversion which is the disruption of unity within the state, by providing email addresses to a magazine promoting democracy by Chinese protestors. There are many accusations within the western culture that China censors certain information about corrupt governing officials and other unpleasant incidents that could incur social and economic weakness. Contrary to popular belief, China does not discount individual or opposing political views. It is the act of forming an organisation to challenge state power that governing bodies will begin intervention and censorship. It is in an interesting concept as with organisations that are pro-government, the governing bodies place the social harmony and stability with utmost importance (The Economist, 2013). The negative effects of internet censorship in China are well known in western culture with most documents discussing the suppression and control that China needs to maintain in regard to political control. As most western cultures are democratic, China is viewed as having an innate disadvantage comparingly, and the suppression of individuality will inevitably lead to a political weakness. The Chinese Government have recognised the economic benefit and have chosen to embrace it, but only acknowledging some advantages and disregarding the rest has weakened China in views of the western world but preserved cultural demands by

ISYS100 Assignment the communist party. This can be seen with the growing government programs aimed at helping businesses go online and to sell globally which is one of the main factors for such economic growth and solidifies the theory that China only views the internet as only needed for economic gain and seeks to control every other aspect. On the other side of this, some argue that there is a positive to the prevalent use of internet censorship keeping economic use and benefit in mind. The default search engine in China called Baidu has greatly benefited the Chinese governing bodies as the block of foreign competitors has allowed domestic searches resulting in an increase in revenue for domestic organisations. The social and ethical reasons for a governing body to employ internet censorship are to retain control content that can be related to sexuality, gambling, illegal substances, alcohol or any other topics that might be seen as socially sensitive or can be perceived as offensive to society (OpenNet Initiative). An example of internet censorship in a social sense is Iran and its Supreme Council of Cyberspace (Refer to Appendix 4). The Supreme Council of Cyberspace governs three different bodies in relation to censorship such as; the Committee for Determining Offensive Contents which concern themselves with politics within Iran through the maintenance of lists that have censored content and enforcing the communication policies; the Iran Cyber Police which concerns itself with the prosecution of users who commit illegal internet activities; and the Revolutionary Guard Cyber Defence Command which concerns itself with the protection and implementation of countermeasures against cyberattacks (Aryan et al, 2013). Criminal activities such as pornography or gambling can lead to serious issues in an online social concept. The infinite and comprehensive environment of the internet allows for criminal activities such as online fraud, assault of privacy, pornography and gambling (Chen, 2004) to become prevalent in such a wide community. Over the years, child pornography has become an important issue with more than 100,000

ISYS100 Assignment websites being operated at an international level and generating about three billion dollars annually (Keelty, 2004). This issue eradicates most arguments against internet censorship as this is important in protecting the future generations from the horrors of having such a vast and immoral internet connection on a global sense. A study conducted to identify the scope of internet censorship in Iran founded that 95% of Adult websites were blocked, and more than 50% of the Internet’s most visited websites were also censored (Refer to Appendix 5) (Aryan et al, 2013). The Third Person Effect is an idea that individuals exposed to influential messages have a tendency to see these images affecting another person rather than themselves (Davison, 1983). When immoral content is presumed to influence social desires, it can be seen why some governing bodies are in favour of censorship to help maintain a level of sophistication within social standards, especially in an environment where one message could be sent globally in a short span of time. Religion can play a major role in the censorship of certain websites as religious websites are 8-10 percent of the most frequented in the world (Hofheinz, 2005). There was an incident named Arab Spring that erupted all over the middle-east with protests being organised through social media websites and to share information while the governing bodies attempting to censor all social media websites and political rumours and reports. The case went further when governing bodies of Egypt and Libya cut internet connection to restrict the inflow and outflow of information throughout the countries, which cut 25% of the nation’s total population off (Kravkovsky, 2012). This emboldened the protestors and in turn the internet censorship created a larger chaos as some factions of the community would illegal proxies to organise events. The negative effects of internet censorship in Iran have caused many citizens to resort to specialist software to bypass the restrictions placed by the government as protests continue within the community

ISYS100 Assignment (Cuthbertson, 2018). Tor Project has shown statistics that indicate users in Iran have doubled since the protests began in December (Refer to Appendix 6). In response to this negative reaction, an article discusses that the decision was not made to stop all Iranian users from being able to access certain pages and apps but actually limits the number of users who are technologically savvy enough to bypass this censorship (Maclellan, 2018). The commercial reasons for a governing body to employ internet censorship are to maintain a certain level of revenue for the country without cheaper, global and external sources taking all the income that could be made. An example of internet censorship in a commercial sense is Mexico and its censorship of internet-based communication applications. The blocking of these internet-based applications was instigated by the globalisation of the technological environment, because as the world became globalised, many countries lost a huge supply of telephone consumers to internet-based corporations. This created an enormous loss to national revenue and internet censorship in this sense, is beneficial for a governing body to employ to sustain a certain level of income. Other countries such as China has also enforced this type of internet censorship through the regulation law permitting a maximum of two local operators the license to provide internet-based communication. Internet censorship is practised by non-democratic nations and democratic nations. Democratic nations, however, focus on the social reasons to prevent pornography and other blacklisted websites from being accessed without proper direction. An example of this is in Australia, along with other democratic countries, internet censorship is placed on specific websites such as the Interpol blacklist because of its contents of sexual abuse and child pornography. Within the world, 97 nations have legislation against the censored materials and 58 of these criminalise for possession of such things (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, 2012). The positive effects of internet censorship in this regard

ISYS100 Assignment is the protection that children will not have to be exposed to such content and is therefore, beneficial to the greater society in keeping our future generations safe from immoral content. Democratic nations also use internet censorship to maintain national security, which is quite similar to China. With extremist organisations often spreading their propaganda and publicity over the internet, it is important for any country to be able to counteract this, to prevent further knowledge being spread with younger generations. The internet with its vast resources and global content has been found to act as an efficient platform for recruitment and collaboration within these extremist groups (Weimann, 2004). Recognising the significance in the threats with such groups, the United Kingdom also provides internet censorship for such extensive material (The Guardian, 2004). This is also supported by government interventions such as monitoring and censoring related content. The positive effects of this internet censorship is undoubtedly the restriction of extremist ideals and propaganda spreading throughout the community. In conclusion, there are a multitude of nations who engage in internet censorship for a variety of reasons. China and other governing bodies focus on the politics of internet censorship while the western governing bodies focus primarily on the social aspects. The advantages and disadvantages of internet censorship are quite subjective in nature and relies heavily on experience and its use to make an accurate judgement. Censorship itself can be viewed contextually in an objective sense which allows for an interpretive analysis of the overall effect. In analysing the benefits and disadvantages from an objective point of view, I can concede that censorship is a topic that will remain controversial as global views are interchangeable and internet censorship is still a relevant aid in sheltering future generations from images that should not be seen at such a young age.

Appendices

ISYS100 Assignment Appendix 1: The combination governing bodies might have to employ censorship

Appendix 2: Percentages of materials that are censored on the internet

Appendix 3: The countries who have political reasons and the scope of their internet censorship

ISYS100 Assignment

Appendix 4: The countries who have social reasons and the scope of their internet censorship

Appendix 5: The scope of Iran’s internet censorship

ISYS100 Assignment

Appendix 6: The statistics of users in Iran after protesting began

References

ISYS100 Assignment Aryan, S., Aryan, H. and Halderman, J.A., 2013, August. Internet Censorship in Iran: A First Look. In FOCI. Chen, J., 2004. Wangluo fanzui de falu wenti yanjiu. [Online] Available at: http://www.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id=138544 [accessed 27 may 2018]. Cheung, A., 2006. The business of governance: China's legislationoncontent regulation in cyberspace. International Law and Plitics, Volume 38, pp. 1-38. Cuthbertson A (2018) Iranian protesters have found a way to get past internet censorship. Newsweek, Available from: http://www.newsweek.com/iran-internet-censorship-sees-protestersturn-dark-web-772182 [accessed 28 May 2018]. Davison, P. W. (1983). The Third-Person Effect in Communication. Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 47 Issue 1, p.p 1-15. Hofheinz, A. (2005). The Internet in the Arab world: Playground for political liberalization. International politics and society, 3(1), 78-96. International Centre For Missing and Exploited Children. (2012). Child Pornography: Model Legislation and Global Review. International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Keelty, M., 2004. The dark side of technology. Melbourne, International Connections conference. Klotz, R. J. (2003). The Politics of Internet Communication. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Krakovsky, M. (2012). Garbage In, Info Out. Communication of ACM, 55, 9 , 10-17. Liang, B. & Lu, H., 2010. Internet Development, Censorship, and Cyber Crimes in China. Contemporary Criminal Justice, pp. 103-120.

ISYS100 Assignment Maclellan S (2018) What You Need to Know about Internet Censorship in Iran. Centre for International Governance Innovation, Available from: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/what-you-need-knowabout-internet-censorship-iran [accessed 28 May 2018]. The Economist (2013) Cat and mouse. How China makes sure its internet abides by the rules, Available from: https://www.economist.com/special-report/2013/04/06/cat-and-mouse [accessed 29 May 2018]. The Guardian. (2014). ISPs criticised over deal to filter extremist material online. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/14/isps-filterextremistmaterial-internet [accessed 28 May 2018]. Users – Tor Metrics (2018) Metrics.torproject.org, Available from: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?start=201711-01&end=2017-12-31&country=ir&events=off [accessed 28 May 2018]. Weimann, G., 2004. www. terror. net: How modern terrorism uses the Internet (Vol. 116). DIANE Publishing....