Internet
is the single most invention which brought in new human civilization in
these couple of decades. Started as point- to-point communication
between mainframe computer and terminals; evolved in to connecting
networks and then the humans all over the world. The growth of internet
is unprecedented because of its free and open nature. And
the very freedom of internet is being threatened by governments of the
various countries conniving to cut the wings of internet.
Internet is capable of playing myriad roles-- information dissipation, entertainment, social network and many more. It is huge medium to express political dissent, social justice, and can turn in to a single voice incorporating a million voices, which cannot be silenced with a decree. The Jasmine Revolution, which changed political scenario in middle –east, is one such example. While internet offers innumerable goodies, it also has some glitches, the antisocial elements find this to be credible medium, be it the piracy, child pornography, national security, terrorism or organized crime. In these cases governments’ move to curb internet freedom seems noble. While there are ways to do it without causing threat to nature of internet, governments are mulling for easy way out—something which even a feeble creature like mouse comes up with upon seeing a cat.
There are advocates of democracy and free speech, pitched to freedom of internet. Read on to know such five organizations.
#5 The Centre for Internet & Society
It is an organization based in Bangalore, focused on the concerns of internet freedom in India. It undertakes policy and academic research on impact of internet with respect to social, political and cultural context in the country. India ranks 39 among 100 countries on the scale of most free to least free internet, as on April 2011. The government recently added more rules which require intermediaries, including search engines, and social networking sites to remove contents if the individuals complain that it is offensive. This opened an unmanned door where anyone with malicious intentions without real reasons can file a complaint to block the site or some content.
The Centre for Internet & Society has been very vocal about the Indian Government ’s attempts to sabotage internet freedom in 2011 and undertook many initiatives to spread awareness among the masses to campaign against the policy. The protesting people wore a ribbon tying their mouth.
It partnered with Google India in 2011, created Google policy fellowship. Rishabh Dara who got elected as fellow, gave paper presentation about the IT Rules 2011. As part of study, he sent takedown notices to seven intermediaries, about the action taken by them. The result is that six out of seven intermediaries took down the content without even a proper judgment if the act was necessary or not, because it’s easy to strike it down than defend themselves in the court. This successfully exposed how the freedom of internet is vulnerable under government bills.
#4 Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF is a U.S based organization established in 1990, and prides itself as first line of defense whenever the freedom of internet is threatened. It is an organization consisting of lawyers, activists, technologists and analysts who fight for rights of people to free internet, in court of law. It acts like a watch dog keeping vigilant eye on policy makers. EFF has successfully exposed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a covert multi-national pact which could have severely marred internet freedom. It also has to its credit, the successful spearheading of campaign against bills like, Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). If enacted these bills would have had authority to blacklist sites accused of copyright infringement without any proof. To protest against these bills, EFF teamed up with several other online activists, started the campaign, which got support from major sites, which blacked out to mark protest. EFF offers membership world wide, and also avails support and advice to organizations and individuals who are fighting for internet freedom. People can also make donations to show their involvement for the cause.
#3 Anonymous
This organization has taken fight against government to curb internet freedom a notch up and is active in different parts of the world for the cause. Anonymous is group of hacktivists, it was established somewhere around 2003 and, as the name suggests, the members remain anonymous. During public demonstrations, they wear Guy Fawkes masks, which is now strongly associated with Anonymous and has become its public identity. The members of Anonymous come together and make use of several Internet forums to collaborate. The group is against Internet censorship and targets official government sites by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or by defacing its webpages. Most prominent amongst its activities include Project Chanology – to protest against the Church of Scientology. Anonymous was irked by the Church's attempt to remove a video interview of Tom Cruise extolling the virtues of scientology. Citing it as an instance of Internet censorship, Anonymous released a warning video on YouTube in 2008 and followed it up with DDoS attacks to hinder the operations of Scientology. More recently, Anonymous made news by its activities to protest Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that brought down sites of FBI, U.S. Justice Department, Motion Pictures Association of America and many others. Anonymous also made its presence felt in India in May this year owing to Indian Governments increased attempts at Internet censorship. In the line of fire were the sites of Supreme Court of India, Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
#2 Internet Defense League
The Internet Defense League was established by Fight for the Future, a non-profit group, in collaboration with the founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. The site was materialized in wake of far-spread protest of SOPA bill, to put up sustained efforts in case of future if government attempts to censor internet through various bills which lack sense. The organization has come up with ‘cat signal’ like “bat signal”, to alert during a need for action. Mode of action-- websites who have signed-up with the organization has to add a code to their site or opt to receive an alert over email. When the alert is raised, the widget or a banner pops up on the site urging people to go for action. The measure taken could range from boycotts, signing petitions or even black-out.
Even bloggers can be a part of this initiative; the overall idea is to gear-up large masses over small time to heat up the protest. The sites Mozilla, WordPress, Reddit, CraigConnect, EFF, AccessNow, GrooveShark and many more are members of this organization.
#1 Access Now
It is a US based organization that is striving for internet freedom globally. The organization is founded in the wake of Iran’s presidential elections in 2009.
It brings organizations, activists, peoples together around the world for the cause of internet freedom. It also helps spread awareness about digital rights of the people globally, and helps them take initiatives for the cause.
You can be a part of the organizations several campaigns, and can browse through various campaigns across globe and offer your support through a digital print. So it is truly global in fighting against internet censorship.
The
organization also awards Access Innovation Prize, by giving out money
to individuals, organisations or networks that come up with credible
ideas to fight internet censor, and make use of internet to promote
digital rights of people in their respective countries. The organization
has the tools to act on, but it is open for new idea from the
individuals about their common cause.
You can sign up for this site and can take active role play.
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