It was the opening day of the G8 summit today and one of the main issues on the agenda will be the future of the internet. Governments will discuss how and whether it’s possible to regulate and censor the internet.
Governments have become increasingly worried. China now operates a huge firewall which blocks any internet site with an anti-government line. The power of the internet was evidenced during the Arab spring, where social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, were major factors in causing uprisings and toppling regimes.
The talks also follow the super injunction scandal and British legal crisis. Thousands defied the law and defended the right to free speech using the websites twitter, including a many celebrities such as Dom Jolly, Piers Morgan and Boy George. Even now lawyers may seek to prosecute them. The situation has government’s worried and they may try and clamp down on internet freedoms in the future. This might start with certain regulations on companies such as Twitter, Google and Facebook.
Today Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warned against any attempt to regulate the internet. He said any interference would damage the internet’s power to spread freedom.
Google leader Eric Schmidt said any regulation wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace of technology, ‘Technology will move faster than governments, so don’t legislate until you understand the consequences.
J’s thoughts
Whatever the outcome, it is all our duty to defend the right to free speech. The internet is the defining feature of our generation. It is wonderful in many ways and it has done a great deal of good for democracy, knowledge and dare I say peace. It has its darker sides of course but so does any product of humanity.
At some point some our governments will try and control the internet. They will twist it, manipulate it and use it as means to control us. In some cases like China it is already too late. It is all our jobs to stop this from happening.