Advocates call on Government to protect online freedom

With freedom, comes great responsibility. We are all born into this world with rights that carry with it obligations. In a sense, one cannot exist without the other, or else there will be nothing but confusion and chaos in the world. There is freedom by right and by type, and this freedom encompasses all the other specific kinds: freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of information, freedom of thought, freedom of press, and freedom of movement. It’s notable that such freedom no longer exists merely in the real world, because it’s also very much present in the online world.

This online freedom is what advocates and privacy groups are seeking out to protect, as they have fired off a letter addressed to Foreign Secretary William Hague expressing the need to urge the Government to stop imposing laws and implementing measures such as site blocking that’s tantamount to censorship. One example is the recent call made by Prime Minister David Cameron to four of the largest Internet providers, namely BT Broadband, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, to set up porn filters.

This move was welcome by some and opposed by many. Site blocking was thought to possibly do more harm than good–at least, in BT Broadband’s Internet Policy overseer Mita Mitra’s views, who stated: “Communications systems are inherently designed to deliver communication. It’s a big thing, technically, philosophically, for us to stop people accessing sites… it’s quite a significant engineering and technical issue to focus your efforts on effective blocking.” She also added: “There’s a difference between building stops in a system for those who are deliberate compared to those who didn’t realise that they were going to do it.”

The letter to Hague was signed by 11 various privacy advocates, including the authors Heather Brooke and Evgeny Morozov and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Rights Group, Privacy International. These organizations believed that the government wasn’t doing enough to protect online freedom, writing: “The Government’s record on freedom of expression and privacy is less than ideal. Britain’s desire to promote these ideals internationally is being hampered by domestic policy.”

The organizations asserted that the government was also trying to get a tighter grip on the type of content that can be viewed online: “This is clear from recent public support by the Prime Minister, and through Claire Perry MP’s ongoing inquiry, for plans to filter adult and other legal material on UK Internet connections by default.”

They also called for the UK Government to “reject censorship and surveillance,” adding: “This Government should be proud to stand up for freedom of expression and privacy off and online.”

Source – PCPro