Censoring the Net Rob Faris Berkman Center for Internet & Society June 26, 2008

Today Global survey of filtering The problem of regulating speech on the net The problem of not regulating speech on the net Social media, content mingling and filtering Promoting freedom of expression: short-term & long-term Distributed research

Global survey of filtering

The problem of regulating speech on the net

The problem of not regulating speech on the net

Social media, content mingling and filtering

Promoting freedom of expression:

short-term & long-term

Distributed research

Today Toronto Oxford Cambridge Harvard

Today Restricting Speech on the Net

Today Intellectual Property law Registration, licensing and ID requirements Liability for defamation, etc. (people or companies) Arrest and intimidation Search result filtering Indirect – DoS, hacking Monitoring and surveillance Technical Internet filtering $$ (high cost of access) Restricting Speech on the Net

Intellectual Property law

Registration, licensing and ID requirements

Liability for defamation, etc. (people or companies)

Arrest and intimidation

Search result filtering

Indirect – DoS, hacking

Monitoring and surveillance

Technical Internet filtering

$$ (high cost of access)

Tunisia China UAE Myanmar Saudi Arabia Iran Syria Yemen Uzbekistan Ethiopia South Korea Bahrain Pakistan Jordan India Azerbaijan Singapore Political Filtering Social Filtering Security/Conflict Filtering Morocco Oman Thailand Vietnam Sudan Tajikistan

The problem of regulating speech on the net

The problem of regulating speech on the net Transparency Specificity Due process and judicial review or Effectiveness Informality Prior restraint

Transparency

Specificity

Due process and judicial review

or

Effectiveness

Informality

Prior restraint

The problem of not regulating speech on the net

Child pornography Violence Hate speech ……

Child pornography

Violence

Hate speech

……

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

Social media and content mingling

Today

Today Promoting freedom of expression: short-term & long-term

Distributed research Expanding the number of people who gather information Increasing the number of people who use the information collected

Expanding the number of people who gather information

Increasing the number of people who use the information collected

Herdict = verdict of the herd Enabling and leveraging a wider distributed network of those that are interesting in contributing

= verdict of the herd

Enabling and leveraging a wider distributed network of those that are interesting in contributing

http://herdict.org/ http://herdict.org

[email_address] Rob Faris Berkman Center for Internet & Society June 25, 2008