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Should governments block websites?

The BBC News has learnt that the nearly two hour blackout of the video-sharing website YouTube on Sunday was almost certainly connected to the Pakistan government's regulatory body Pakistan Telecom Authority. Should governments censor internet sites?

The owner of YouTube, Google, says the nearly two-hour outage of the website was caused by what it calls "erroneous internet protocols", sourced in Pakistan.

The Pakistani authorities ordered the Islamic republic's internet service providers to block the website because its content included Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

But in the process Pakistan Telecom "hijacked" the web server address of YouTube and the video web site was mistakenly blocked by internet service providers around the world.

In what circumstances would you allow governments to block access to the internet? Do you believe any censorship is an attack on freedom of expression? What are the wider lessons from the action by the Pakistani authorities?

Reply 1

dh00001

16

i dont think the goverment should block as such. people should be able to make their own descions to what they are exposed to. obviously sites which encourage terrorism / other criminal acts should be, but providing the site falls with the realms of the law they shouldnt.
some kind of system to warn people of the nature of certain content would be good idea. and tighter means to protect children and other vunerable parties.

Reply 2

NDGAARONDI

16

Leave it for ISPs to decide.

Reply 3

Captain Biggles

2

I'm not sure about the ins-and-outs of internet law, but do governments have the right to remove access to certain sites? Would it be an infringement on any human rights? :confused:

Personally, I think the right to free speech is one of the most important basic human rights granted to us and in this case I believe the Pakistani authorities should not be able to block content. However, should accessing and/or uploading content be illegal in the country, then I believe the country can prosecute those individuals involved should their laws allow it.

Reply 4

Slash_GNR

11

dh00001

i dont think the goverment should block as such. people should be able to make their own descions to what they are exposed to. obviously sites which encourage terrorism / other criminal acts should be, but providing the site falls with the realms of the law they shouldnt.
some kind of system to warn people of the nature of certain content would be good idea. and tighter means to protect children and other vunerable parties.

Only problem is that the internet is multinational and not all laws are the same for every country, makes that kind of hard to enforce.

Reply 5

Diminutive

2

There are positives to censorship.... such as blocking children porn etc. but it is still a massive violation of human rights. It's actually something I'd like to write my final year dissertation on.
I think a viable system would be a warning system. Before you enter a site, you basically get a warning page advising the site could contain content that could be offensive to certain religious rights etc.

Censorship in some countries is horrific, they censor anything that doesn't agree with the political views of the rulers.

Reply 6

Donald Duck

15

I'd say they are not allowed and lessons learned it that Pakistan is a troublesome country.

Reply 7

SyncMaster710

Nope, even if they did how is it possible, wouldnt stop the problem there are too many complexities involved, that is why I hate the US so much with what the RIAA are doing to interent radio etc... trying to police what they have no right to. Anyway to have a warning system wouldnt work, and it would be yet another thing to click... not good! Who would do it, at what cost to the taxpayer would it be? Anyway to have terrorist sites avaliable etc is bringing it sort of above ground, the government watch sites like that with ALOT of interest which makes it easier to track those who are looking at, planning, interested in such things, which is in my opinion good.

Reply 8

Captain Biggles

2

SyncMaster710

Anyway to have terrorist sites avaliable etc is bringing it sort of above ground, the government watch sites like that with ALOT of interest which makes it easier to track those who are looking at, planning, interested in such things, which is in my opinion good.

Good point. :yy:

Reply 9

DirtyHarry

12

No, never, regardless of content.

Reply 10

randomgirl

14

People should be able to see what they want on the internet, it's their choice.

Reply 11

Manky

I agree that some websites should be banned. Have you people never seen the disgusting racist/ sexist comments made on youtube?? The number of swear words and other vulgarity????

Yet this is now acceptable in society??? People should go walk naked on the streets! That's freedom for ya lot!

Reply 12

eDDeboo

14

They shouldn't block them, they should find the source and shut it down if it is some terrorist training programme.

Reply 13

Freols

Ideally there should be a central UN filter... but that would never work out :biggrin:

Reply 14

tired yet?

2

eDDeboo

They shouldn't block them, they should find the source and shut it down if it is some terrorist training programme.

i concur!

Reply 15

Reue

20

randomgirl

People should be able to see what they want on the internet, it's their choice.

DirtyHarry

No, never, regardless of content.

How about Child porn? Beastiality?

Reply 16

Kittten

12

Am I right in thinking the only websites currently censored in the UK are ones which feature child porn? but there are no laws limiting the government from further censoring the web? (please correct me if I'm wrong, I heard this from someone else, so I'm not sure it's true). If this is the case then I'm happy with this limiting of freedom of speech, and I think there are good arguments for banning violent porn too, but I find it quite sinister that there are no limits on how far censorship can be taken. Although our current government might not abuse this power, it could be open to abuse from later governments.

Although I am on the whole against the limiting of freedom of speach I find this acceptable because it affects only a small minority of people who cause huge amounts of damage to the children involved. (I think the benifits out weigh the problem).

I am (obviously) against terrorism, but I don't think there is enough to justify closing down pro-terrorism websites. It isn't the knowledge that is causing problems, it is the application of knowledge, which is a different point. To prevent terrorism there needs to be more than the banning of a few websites, and I would be concerned that if that did happen it might actually encourage more people to stand up against the government and fight for their freedom. After all one man's freedom figher is another man's terrorist.

Reply 17

punktopia

3

Just because freedom of speech is a foreign concept to them, it doesn't mean they have the right to inflict their misguided opinions on the rest of the world.

Reply 18

Reue

20

Kittten

Am I right in thinking the only websites currently censored in the UK are ones which feature child porn?

As far as i am aware, the government dosent block any website. That is up to the individual ISP.

Reply 19

randomgirl

14

Reue

How about Child porn? Beastiality?

Even if child porn websites existed, they'd either be closed down very quickly, or they'd make catching the people who look at it quicker/easier!

Same for beastiality, it's illegal so the person doing the 'deed' could get arrested.

If I stumbled across child porn or beastiality on the net then I'd be pretty damn shocked, but I would make sure not to return to that website! I'd probably be scared that I'd be branded a paedophile from just accidentally finding one website :redface:

Should governments block websites?

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