One Step Forward for Internet Censorship, A Step Backwards for Israel
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Usually, I don't write about or get into political views on my blog, but this issue concerns me as a blogger and as citizen in a country such as Israel.
To make a long story short: More than a year and a half ago, Parliament member, Amnon Cohen suggested that all internet service providers should filter internet content for anyone who does not identify themselves as adults. The process was meant to be done via biometric identification and at the server level.
Now the proposal is due in Parliament after it received support from the government and passed the preliminary vote (out of three). According to this proposal, all internet users will either have to install filter software or use service-side filtering unless they identify themselves as adults willing to consume adult content (this is the place where the Minister of Telecommunications may decide how to identify users).
If this proposal is approved and gets full support from the government at the end of process of three votes, these will be the consequences as the result of this matter:
If you familiar with the web 2.0, you must know then that there is an enormous growth when it's come to Israel's Internet Industry, a step like this will hurt lots of companies.
Frankly, I can't believe that in an advanced country like Israel, the government itself would have a hand in bringing down its own economy. Moreover, I can't even imagine a situation where content from my blog or worse, my whole blog is being censored. It's sounds nightmarish and like the plot of a doomsday sci fi story.
However, this is just one side of a bigger issue which seems to be more and more a matter of political power and control over Israeli civilians. In a democratic country, an undemocratic law that gains support by the government, may open the doors for other unreasonable similar low blows that could endanger more of our freedoms on the future.
What's scares me is that most of the population naively sees this action as something that will protect their children from being exposed to inappropriate content and do not fear its ramifications on all of us as a whole. If a parent wants to, and they should protect their kids, it's his/her personal decision to place a filter that will block access to adult content on their computer. It's their choice as an individual and that simple.
Please take a minute to read the full story on this blog and feel free to spread the word because your help is needed! Don't allow our rights to slowly slip away. Let's move toward progress!
You can also show your support in the Coalition against Internet Censorship group (via Facebook).
Usually, I don't write about or get into political views on my blog, but this issue concerns me as a blogger and as citizen in a country such as Israel.
To make a long story short: More than a year and a half ago, Parliament member, Amnon Cohen suggested that all internet service providers should filter internet content for anyone who does not identify themselves as adults. The process was meant to be done via biometric identification and at the server level.
Now the proposal is due in Parliament after it received support from the government and passed the preliminary vote (out of three). According to this proposal, all internet users will either have to install filter software or use service-side filtering unless they identify themselves as adults willing to consume adult content (this is the place where the Minister of Telecommunications may decide how to identify users).
If this proposal is approved and gets full support from the government at the end of process of three votes, these will be the consequences as the result of this matter:
- Blogs, Forums and other group discussions could be blocked by default;
- Censorship is to be activated on News sites (pictures, videos, etc.,) and they will lose their freedom of expression;
- LGBT communities will be probably blocked as well;
- Israeli companies that contain user-generated content are at a major risk because surely this kind of content will be hard to monitor.
If you familiar with the web 2.0, you must know then that there is an enormous growth when it's come to Israel's Internet Industry, a step like this will hurt lots of companies.
Frankly, I can't believe that in an advanced country like Israel, the government itself would have a hand in bringing down its own economy. Moreover, I can't even imagine a situation where content from my blog or worse, my whole blog is being censored. It's sounds nightmarish and like the plot of a doomsday sci fi story.
However, this is just one side of a bigger issue which seems to be more and more a matter of political power and control over Israeli civilians. In a democratic country, an undemocratic law that gains support by the government, may open the doors for other unreasonable similar low blows that could endanger more of our freedoms on the future.
What's scares me is that most of the population naively sees this action as something that will protect their children from being exposed to inappropriate content and do not fear its ramifications on all of us as a whole. If a parent wants to, and they should protect their kids, it's his/her personal decision to place a filter that will block access to adult content on their computer. It's their choice as an individual and that simple.
Please take a minute to read the full story on this blog and feel free to spread the word because your help is needed! Don't allow our rights to slowly slip away. Let's move toward progress!
You can also show your support in the Coalition against Internet Censorship group (via Facebook).
A round of $5 Million for 
