The OpenNet initiative has just finished a study, newly released in a book detailing a large scale study on access around the world to the free web. They examine global internet filtering country by country and rate it from ‘no evidence of filtering’ to ‘pervasive filtering’. Turns out at least 40 states around the world participate in some form of filtering, and that the filtering is in relation to “politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion–(subjects) that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens” Lawrence Lessig, in his review of the book says “No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now. This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the Net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm.”
Book available from MIT Press. Citation: Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Jonathan Zittrain, eds., Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, (Cambridge: MIT Press) 2008
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