Internet 2: Doomsday for freedom of speech?

[Lenny]

Wouldn't public access computers be able to dodge such a thing?

Or perhaps the old Chicago electoral trick, instead of having the dead vote, have them surf the internet constantly

Well if Internet 2 becomes the only available online resource, sites like these won't exist.

I don't understand, do you mean because no one would dare visit them, because the hosts wouldn't want to set up bait for the government to entrap "racists", or because even the hosts would be afraid of being targetted? (Or all three).

[Vulpix]

I don't understand, do you mean because no one would dare visit them, because the hosts wouldn't want to set up bait for the government to entrap "racists", or because even the hosts would be afraid of being targetted? (Or all three).

Probably all three and because the site owners would be arrested for thought/hate crimes, racism, hets mot folkgrupp, etc?

[HawkR]

The so called freedon of speech is gone ages ago. This tracking internet is just another tool for the system (the eye?) to track us. If this "Internet 2" is coming, and they're removing "Internet" I'll most likely stop being on. But the question I wonder most about, will MSN and such be affected? Will there be a need for I2 to log onto MSN? If this is so, it's pretty clear that they are going to watch us.

[Freomæg]

Who would want to put their lives at risk by even the most innocuous research, without it being misconstrued by the authorities

I've got news for you Brynhild: We're all probably already being watched. I made my peace with that a while ago. But you're right, there's a difference between covert surveillance where they have no justification for making your life difficult, and the kind of overt surveillance we'd be subject to with Internet 2.

The first steps in a move to charge for every e mail sent have already been taken

Actually, I think this would be fantastic. Why, you ask? Because it would help many of us re-learn how to network information the old-fashioned way (where we're not as easily surveilled), and it might help many of us re-learn how to sit down and engage in some good old-fashioned human interaction. Might be better for our cause in the long-run.

[Loki]

I don't understand, do you mean because no one would dare visit them, because the hosts wouldn't want to set up bait for the government to entrap "racists", or because even the hosts would be afraid of being targetted? (Or all three).

To register a website on internet 2 would be a lot more difficult, with more red tape involved, and more private info given. It will probably not be authorised anyway, so you won't be able to get a site on internet 2 that is not politically correct.

[Lenny]

As someone else mentioned, this would transform all our our internet experience into being a copy of China's. Where bloggers are regularly jailed for what they publish and millions of websites are banned -- Example : http://opennet.net/google_china/sear...=tiananmen&q2= -- and with no way around it.



On the bright side, we know that the Secret Policy in communist states spied on millions of their own citizens... but what happened to those governments