Policy of Internet Censorship

            "Censorship - the act or policy of censoring. To censoring - to examine, control, delete or omit the content of." (Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus, 1998) This is the official definition of the censorship, as people know it. It is important to concentrate on the "deleting" part, because in 1994, after the APRANET was turned off and the Internet became a public commercial network, people started to worry about decency of the World Wide Web. So, the U.S. Congress issued several bills (such as Internet Decency Act) that put strict laws into the place of controlling the Internet. In one of his interviews, senator Jim Exon, author of the Decency Act, quotes: "We must create laws for the Internet similar to those now in place for television and radio." (Exon, 1995) At the end of 1995, an opposition was formed. Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (branch of American Civil Liberties Union) declared that the Internet is not like any type of media and should not be censored as one. Watching this battle going, I formed a strong opinion. Joining the opposition, I believe that the Internet must not be censored because censoring is against basic human freedoms; it"s impossible and unnecessary.

             In order to prove that censorship on the Internet is wrong, you don"t have to go far into the Internet and consider such issues as child pornography (i.e.). The proof is simple: censoring the Internet contradicts the fundamental human freedoms. It is the United States Congress that first proposed and still is running the campaign for the censorship on the Internet. U.S. Congressmen are the (only) ones who stand the trial against American Civil Liberal Union and the opposition. However, the very first rule (Amendment) that the U.S. Congress operates upon declares: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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