by Mishra Planeswalker

Created on: December 27, 2008

There are two things one must consider before saying that the internet should be subject to censorship. We must first remember the principals on which the internet was founded, namely the free and universal access to information. On the more practical side, we must realize how unfeasible it would be to police a network the size of the internet. As logical and rational human beings, it is easy to conclude that we should not attempt to censor the internet.

The internet has become the most widely used method of sharing information, and this is for a number of reasons. The internet is so useful and so widely used because it does not discriminate about what information can be placed on it. No matter what your interest or need, you can find information on it on the internet. Now imagine if this was no longer true, would the internet still be used to the degree it is today? The answer is a resounding no, because someone, somewhere would be looking for content that was censored, and would quickly turn to other sources of information.

Censorship is the process of blocking access to information based on what a certain group of people believe. If we allow the internet to be censored, the once free network of information will have been compromised. If the internet is to be censored, there will be an enormous amount of power granted to those who decide what gets censored, and in the immortal words of Ben Parker, "With great power comes great responsibility." Can we really trust the fate of the internet to a few people? We have seen through the many attempts at Communism in Russia that corruption will always occur when power is highly concentrated. Now think of what would happen if almost all the communications around the globe were controlled by a corrupt power. The only way that corruption can be overthrown is if information is disseminated, and if information is not freely exchanged, it becomes virtually impossible for any change to be made. We must preserve our ties of global communication, and in severing those ties, we give up so much of our freedom to information.

So far we have been assuming that censoring the internet is something that could actually happen. However, to think that you could effectively police a global network the size of our modern internet is absurd. Currently, every country has different laws regarding how the internet can be used, and even then people manage to circumvent any regulations that may be imposed upon them. Now picture trying to create

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