Chinese Internet Users Relish Irony Of SOPA's Great Firewall Of America

After being on the receiving end of the West's pointed comments about the Great Firewall of China and the online censorship it helps to enforce, Chinese Internet users are enjoying the deep irony that SOPA will effectively copy China's approach by creating a Great Firewall of America. As one wrote:

It looks like that we can finally export our technology and value to the Americans. We’re strong, advanced, and absolutely right!

The same post on Global Voices Online reports that others are taking things more seriously, and worry about the knock-on effects SOPA will have on Net freedom around the world:

Most Chinese-language blogs and microblog messages emphasize the disastrous outcomes that the bill could bring. What people worry about most are bill's endorsement of surveillance by web services and Internet companies to prevent 

“infringing” content, and the implications for individual privacy.

None of this will come as any surprise. But it's extraordinary that the politicians supporting SOPA can't see – or don't care about – the huge damage it will do to the international reputation of the US, and the harm it will cause human rights around the globe.

 

 

 

 

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New U.S. censorship law

 

U.S. lawmakers are discussing a bill that is aimed at fighting pedophilia and child pornography on the Internet; the debate centers on the “Child protection from Computer Pornography 2011.” This new law focuses on the complete elimination of online privacy.
Although it is aimed at combating paedophilia and child pornography, the context turns any internet user into a possible target, to be monitored by the authorities. If the bill is to be approved, it would represent by far the most important form of civil liberties restraint, whose victims could be virtually everyone using the Internet.

One of the bill’s points is to keep record of every page accessed by Internet customers and store them for 18 months in an archive. This archive would include the user name, home address, and account numbers from banks, credit card numbers and IP address associated with the computer from where access is made.

Those against it say that intercepting citizens’ everyday behavior to help capture a relatively small number of pedophiles is a method classically used by police states. The scheme proposed by this law, to record the user’s information and online history does nothing more than to treat every Internet user as a possible perpetrator and also threatens online privacy and freedom of expression of every American.

The law was thought in such a way that individuals monitored over the Internet don’t have to be under investigation for child pornography, police being permitted to access the data of all those suspected of any illegality.

Furthermore, this data will be checked in civil proceedings also, such as divorce or child custody processes.

The bill has passed by the Commission but has not yet reached the Superior Court.

 

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