Freedom vs. Censorship on the Net
Two cases are in the news regarding freedom of speech issues on the internet and each represents the extreme of two opposing ideologies - the West vs. Islam. Increasingly polarized rhetoric is drawing website and video hosting companies into the free speech debate and governments, among others, are applying pressure regarding inflammatory content and what is sometimes seen as incitement to violence. The two high-profile cases in question involve Geert Wilders, the right-wing Dutch politician, whose website was recently suspended by an American webhosting service and the Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose videos have been recent;y removed by YouTube.
Geert Wilders is a controversial, but successful Dutch politician whose platform is founded on anti-immigration and anti-Muslim philosophy. His party, the PVV (Party for Freedom) has been gaining in popularity, but Wilders has been embroiled in controversy throughout his career. He has vowed to fight the "Islamisation of the Netherlands" and has tried to have the Quran banned in Holland. He was formerly charged with "incitement to hatred and discrimination" by a Dutch court and has been denied entrance to the United Kingdom but the ban was overturned. The American company, Network Solutions has suspended his website which was designed to promote Wilder's new film, Fitna, which is purported to portray the Quran as "fascist". Network Solutions has put a notice up that the site is under investigation of whether the site violates the terms of service.
YouTube, meanwhile, has pulled hundreds of videos from its site that were posted by Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemini radical cleric who was born in the U.S., and who has been dubbed the "Bin Laden of the Internet". Government officials from the U.S. and Britain applied pressure to YouTube to remove the videos which were seen as incitements to violence. Awlaki has been rumored to have ties with the extremist group which is believed to be responsible for the planting of bombs on planes that were destined for the U.S., but which were discovered before arrival.
Webhosting services are increasingly caught up in the free speech debate, and as the polarization and extremist rhetoric from both sides of the West vs. Islam debate continues to grow, there are likely to be many more cases in the future where domain hosting services must also mitigate the free speech debate.
Is a busy stay-at-home mum with two bright young boys, ages 3 and 4. When she isn't running after the men in her family, she likes sharing tips on cooking, gardening, parenting and being a tech-savvy mum from Suffolk. Also, posting pictures and sharing stories about her wonderful children.
