Minnesota, USA -June 28, 2011 - Not only do we see efforts by governments to censor web content in authoritarian countries like China or Iran, but we see censorship occurring in democratic states such as South Korea, Great Britain, and numerous other states; although the U.S. prides itself on having 'freedom of speech', it is at risk for losing this due to the increasing pressure from other states and radical groups within the country. Increasingly companies and groups on the web are hesitant to allow particular content to be released. Yet, what if this goes beyond 'self-censorship' and becomes a more official practice in which content is filtered by a newly developed government agency
If the U.S. begins this practice, what would be the first webpages to go If the web censorship in S. Korea is any indication, it would be any websites that contain information on activities or interests that are out of the norm. For instance, S. Korea targets the websites that encourage the discovery of ones' sexual orientation -likes websites that show signs or cues that someone may be homosexual or bisexual. Yet, could this be reasonable when the U.S. is seemingly at its peak of Gay Rights Movement Unfortunately it is possible that the U.S. may attempt to keep the younger users from accessing this information. Undoubtedly it cannot take these websites off entirely when there are many Gay Rights activists.The problem with censoring content is that there is no clear line on what is 'too much' to censor and what type of content is not significant enough to censor. Overall, governments tend to eliminate any information that it deems 'harmful' to any large groups of people; basically, it could be nearly any topic and it'd be eliminated. Of course there is content like child pornography and other disgusting practices that must be taken off the web, but there are ways in which governments are able to rationalize that other content is 'similar' to this and thus must be eliminated.
As scary as it may seem, there are ways in which groups of people have fought to keep their content on the web; however, it is a constant battle that requires a lot of energy. In the instance that this occurs in the U.S., there are a few methods that are currently being used to overcome censorship:
1. Use virtual private networks/proxy servers
Although this is widely used in countries, it is probably the most tiring of all methods. Primarily because governments continue to seek out these in order to shut them down. It becomes a game of hide-n-seek where it is obvious that eventually the website will be found and then need to find another way to get back up on the web.
2. Start-up an unfiltered network
This is a way of getting around web restrictions through using satellite or other methods to access the web.
3. Post content in another country
This method may cause some to laugh since most would think that the U.S. would be the last country to censor web content. However, it may be the last resort sometime in the unclear future of the U.S.