When did politicians around the world lose the will to tackle social problems head-on, and instead decide to sweep them under the rug by blocking evidence of them from the Web? It certainly isnt due to any evidence that these policies actually work. Anyone who wants to access blocked content can trivially do so, using software like Tor. Rather, it seems to be that its politically better for governments to be seen as doing something to address such problems, no matter how token and ineffectual, than to do nothing—and website blocking is the easiest “something” they can do. But not only is blocking not effective, it is actively harmful—both at its point of application due to the risk of over-blocking, but also for the Internet as a whole, in the legitimization that it offers to repressive regimes to censor and control content online. Like an overused Internet meme that deserves to fade away, so too it is time that courts and regulators moved on from website blocking as a cure for societys ills. If we wish to reduce political extremism, cut off the production of counterfeits, or prevent children from being abused, then we should be addressing those problems directly—rather than by merely covering up the evidence and pretending they have gone away. More:
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:12:00 +0000