Who determines what is right and wrong online, and how does protest translate from the real to the digital realm?

1. Who determines what is
right and wrong online?

3. Direct Government Censorship
The most easily recognizable form of censorship is when the government directly
interferes with the internet.
• Examples
• Interfering with physical servers, internet service providers (ISPs), or companies
within state jurisdiction
• Blocking access to specific sites or information
• Broad filtering or monitoring of communications, news, or other information
• Some participating states
• China, Iran, Syria, and North Korea

4. Corporate Censorship
When companies or web properties voluntarily restrict certain content to protect their
corporate interests.
• Examples
• Blocking content that they fear may lead to lawsuits
• Blocking content that they feel undermines their business goals
• Reducing company exposure to unwanted content online; i.e. PR
controversy, social media properties, community comments, published hacks, etc.
• Some participating companies
• Apple, YouTube, Facebook

5. Corporations or Special Interest Groups + Government
The most common form of internet censorship in the Western world is a blended
approach where groups lobby government to enact laws beneficial to them.
• Examples
• SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/DMCA – copyright laws giving a company the legal grounds to
sue a company or individual, pressure them to remove certain content, or block
access to certain websites
• Demonization of certain activities in the press as hacking, piracy, etc.
• Participating countries and organizations
• Pervasive throughout the Western world

7. Online Protest
Real-world protest is for the most part a defined activity, but online protest exists in a grey
area. What is and isn’t legal? What constitutes protest vs. criminal activity?
• Examples
• Anonymous – a decentralized group that does participate in hacking at times, but
is primarily a means of organizing both online and real-world protest
• LOIC (Low Orbit Ionic Cannon) – a program often utilized by Anonymous and
others to perform dDOS attacks
• dDOS attacks temporarily overwhelm servers but do no actual damage, much
as a real-world protest may do so with a physical space.

8. Why does this matter?

10. We are here

11. Why does this matter?
The internet is still very young, and how it is defined
today will impact it for decades to come.

13. Why does this matter?
The internet is global and we are all a part of it no
matter which country we live in. And if one country
enacts strict laws, it would disrupt the global net
infrastructure by forcing traffic to route around it, if
even possible depending on the destination.

14. Questions?