Can The Internet Be Silenced?

Worldwide, suppression of free speech is growing and nowhere is that trend more evident than on the World Wide Web. The man who created the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, felt compelled to mention this trend while unveiling the newest report on how governments manage the online lives of their constituents. The bottom line, Berners-Lee said, is that there is no kill switch for Internet freedom.

There is no off switch for the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who's widely acknowledged as the father of the Web, said in London when launching the World Wide Web Index report for 2012.

Growing suppression of free speech, both online and offline, is the major challenge to the Web's future, Berners-Lee stated. Countries in the Middle East as well as China, have continually attempted to suppress free speech, but information seems to find ways to get in and out of these countries.

Even the United States has attempted to insert an Internet kill switch, but this was dropped after strong opposition from a wide spectrum of society here, including consumer advocates and privacy groups. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who pushed for the kill switch provision to be included in the Protecting Cybersecurity as a National Asset Act, said in a TV interview that the US government should follow the lead of China in this area.

Several Western democracies that scored high on the Web Index either monitor citizens' access to the Internet or restrict it in some way. They include the UK and Australia, which scored 93.83 and 88.44 on the index, respectively. The US scored 97. The Index assesses the use, utility and impact of the Web around the world. It looked at 61 countries With Sweden ranking number one followed by the US and the UK. respectively.

Ultimately, the web provides access to content and information that just cannot be stopped, as long as there are social sites, information will continue to permeate throughout the world. In the end we as the people control the flow of content, there has been a substantial shift in the power of information as the web has been adopted by more countries and despite certain governments best efforts, there is just no way to silence our voices.

Frank Toscano is a 15+ year specialist in cloud based services focusing on Product Management, Marketing and Security within the Cloud. He has worked for EasyLink Services and Premiere Global Services in a global role providing hosted services to Fortune 1000 clients. He is currently seeking employment with a cloud based provider in a senior level Product/Marketing role.