Year IV students’ blog for Internet Education

1.Internet censorship is control of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Conversely, attempts by one government to prevent its citizens from seeing certain material can have the effect of restricting foreigners, because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world, if they host objectionable material.

2.The Philippines has a lot of Internet users. I haven’t searched anything about Internet Censorship in our country.

3.
a. The People’s Republic of China is in ONI’s pervasive category and is on RSF’s internet enemy list. China blocks or filters Internet content relating to Tibetan independence, Taiwan independence, police brutality, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, freedom of speech, democracy, pornography, some international news sources (such as the BBC), certain religious movements (such as Falun Gong), many blogging websites, and Wikipedia. Some 52 cyber dissidents are reportedly imprisoned in China for their online postings.

b. Singapore is in ONI’s nominal category and is not on RSF’s internet enemy list. In Singapore, three people were arrested and charged with sedition for posting racist comments on the Internet, of which two have been sentenced to imprisonment.

c. Myanmar is in ONI’s pervasive category and on RSF’s internet enemy list. Burma has banned the websites of political opposition groups, sites relating to human rights, and organizations promoting democracy in Burma. During the 2007 anti-government protests, Burma(another name for Myanmar) completely shut down all internet links from its country.

1.) Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

2.) So far there are no direct laws against internet pornography, etc. but some consider chapter three of title eleven of the revised penal code as laws against it. Unfortunately the laws here do not apply to internet pornography.

3.) Truly we cannot consider any of the laws passed in the Philippines that can give a good fight against internet pornography, yet. Senator Loren Legarda passed Senate Bill 137 or the COMPUTER PORNOGRAPHY ACT last September 11, 2007. The bill is AN ACT TO PUNISH TRANSMISSION OF INDECENT MATERIALS BY COMPUTER TO MINORS. The bill has not been ratified yet.

4.) Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies, and organizations. As of yet there are no known cases of the Chinese authorities censoring critical political or religious content in the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong or Macau.

The escalation of the government’s effort to neutralize critical online opinion comes after a series of large anti-Japanese, anti-pollution and anti-corruption protests, many of which were organised or publicised using instant messaging services, chatrooms and text messages. Although the existence of an Internet police task force, estimated at more than 30,000, has been known for some time, attention is mostly focused on their work as censors and monitors. Critical comments appearing on Internet forums, bulletin boards, blogs, vlogs or any major portals such as Sohu and Sina are usually erased within minutes.

Apparently China has done more action against internet pornography than the Philippines.

In Singapore they have enforced internet censorship to the point where three people were arrested and charged with sedition for posting racist comments on the Internet, of which two have been sentenced to imprisonment.

Burma (also known as Myanmar) is in ONI’s pervasive category and on RSF’s internet enemy list. Burma has banned the websites of political opposition groups, sites relating to human rights, and organizations promoting democracy in Burma. During the 2007 anti-government protests, Burma completely shut down all internet links from its country.

Obviously other countries have been implying their laws against internet pornography and here we are like sitting ducks just waiting for the law to be passed.

Internet censorship, as the name implies, is the repression of information (access and publishing) on the Web. Although attempts of the people’s access to information have been suppressed, it still proves to be impossible. There are just to many lee-ways for public access to information.

In the Philippines, the internet has never been of much concern. Of course, everyone knows of Legarda’s “heroic” closing down of BoyBastos.com. There’s this bill that she made that aims to fight computer pornography in the Philippines. This is another product of idealism doomed to thrive in impossibility.

In other countries, the filtering and suppression of internet content is not as lax. China, for example, totally blocks off sites that has or says anything in its content that may be derogatory to the government. In Singapore, there is no “unjust” moderation of data. There is, however, a strong movement against the illegal sharing of music, games and movies. Also, there has been an incident in which three men were imprisoned for throwing racist remarks. In Burma, things have been taken to an extreme. Any sites of political opposition groups, human rights and the promotion of democracy have been banned. At one point all internet links have been banned even.

The Philippines has been extremely lenient with regard to internet matters. We can freely access whatever we want, illegally download and distribute data, and say whatever we feel like saying. Yay, order!

1) Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet.

2) The Philippines has 2 million Internet users, but they are mostly concentrated in the urban areas. Although households with personal computers account for less than three percent of the population, the country has a high density of mobile phone ownership, with an estimated 12 million subscribers sending out a huge volume of text messages daily.

The Philippine Congress is presently considering an anti-terrorism bill that proposes sanction arrest and detention without court orders, the sequestering of bank deposits and assets of suspected terrorists and their supporters, and which authorises the government to conduct wiretaps on those even remotely suspected of involvement in terrorist activity. Human rights groups fear that the proposed law, that permits surveillance of the Internet and e-mail, is intended to intimidate critics of the government and could violate the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free expression.

3) Internet café chain owner Netopia is urging the government to create a censorship body to monitor data flowing through the local Internet infrastructure.

The proposed censorship body will operate similarly to the Movies Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and provide guidelines for the compliance of Internet service providers.

Netopia President Raymond Ricafort said he has been meeting with Revilla and Villar on their plan to create regulations against online pornography. Ricafort clarified however that the proposed Internet regulatory body will not have total control over local Internet loops, but instead prevent pornographic materials from being distributed through local ISPs, which have primary control over the data that travel through their servers. Ricafort added that Internet regulation and proper implementation could significantly limit the amount of indecent materials reaching users in the Philippines.

4) a. China

China has developed very sophisticated technology for intercepting and censoring Internet content. The government blocks many topics it considers sensitive or controversial and often punishes those who try to get around those bans.

The Chinese government blocks Web sites of some Western media outlets and human rights organizations- and any it deems politically or socially harmful. Chinese people trying to access information related to Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square, SARS, opposition political parties, and anti-Communist movements will find themselves out of luck.

b. Singapore

The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has regulated Internet content as a broadcasting service since July 1996.

The stated factors to be considered in determining what is prohibited material indicate this includes material of a pornographic nature; advocacy of “homosexuality or lesbianism”; depictions of “detailed or relished acts of extreme violence or cruelty” and material that “glorifies, incites or endorses ethnic, racial or religious hatred, strife or intolerance”. An additional factor is “whether the material has intrinsic medical, scientific, artistic or educational value”.

c. Myanmar

Myanmar’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block access to web sites of political opposition groups, human rights-oriented sites, and organizations working for democratic change in Myanmar. Until recently Myanmar used Dans Guardian, an open source filtering software, but has switched to a filtering product made by the U.S.-based vender Fortinet. The state also maintains the capability to conduct surveillance of e-mail as individual users are only allowed access to local email providers - free e-mail sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail are blocked.

Compared to the Philippines, the 3 countries above are far worse than Internet Censorship here. Their freedom to search or use the internet is gone. They are limited to what the government lets them see.

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the
publishing or accessing of information on the
internet.

Philippines has collaborated with ASEAN member nations
( Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam) on finding ways to control expression on the
internet. There were movements against it that
debated on the rights of freedom of speech. But there
are no laws in the Philippines regarding internet
censorship in the country.

Mark Verzo, a.k.a. Boy Bastos, was arrested by NBI due
to the press release of Loren Legarda. He was
eventually released when no charges can be pressed
against him regarding his pornography site. This
shows that there is no internet censorship in the
Philippines.

China’s government blocks topics it considers
sensitive or controversial. Those who try to go around
the ban are punished. The governement filters the
content of the mail, webpages, blogs and forums. It
blocks sites of some Western media outlets and human
rights organization that may be politically or
socially harmful. Information related to Taiwanes e
and Tibetan independence, the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen
Square, SARS, opposition political parties and
anti-Communist movements will not be found.

Singapore has a law on restricting material on the
internet. They regulate political, religious and
pornographic content online. Internet companies such
as service providers, cybercafes and organizations
with sites that provide political religious
information about Singapore must register with the
Broadcast Authority and abide by the rules. The agency
can impose fines and revoke the operating licenses of
companies that refuse to register.

Myanmar has filtering technologies that keep the
citizens from having access to sites hosted outside of
the country.

China, Singapore and Myanmar are supported by the
government and the technology they have. Also, they
have strict implementation. Philippines, on the other
hand, has a divided government that’s why it is hard
to implement laws such as censorships. Also, the
country doesn’t have the technology to monitor
providers and sites from publishing or accessing
information they want to censor.

Controlling and restraining the access to information on the internet is what Internet Censorship is all about. The government controls the internet by regions.

One problem is a country’s government may try to prevent information to be seen by its citizens, but in doing so, harming the foreigners because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world.

People are saying that censorship is subjective, that it depends on the viewer. According to them, people have a right to decide for themselves whether a webpage is appropriate and censoring these materials would be unfair to those who enjoy it. The government will overpower the internet users and block whatever websites or materials they want.

Laws in the Philippines

According to the World Factbook, there are 8,070,000 internet users in the
Philippines and it is growing over time. Because of the rate we’re at, the government is now imposing laws to censor materials on the internet.

For example, Senator Loren Legarda recently banned a pornographic site, BoyBastos because of, obviously, its explicit content. “This is by far the filthiest Internet site we’ve come across that offers open and unlimited access to some of the most obscene videos and photographs of Filipino women and girls,” Legarda said.

Of course, I support Legarda and the government on this. Legarda is author of Senate Bill 1375, the proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut.

Internet Censorship in the Philippines

Right now, there is minimal censorship and anyone can view any pornographic or explicit material. Because of this, and the rate of internet users, the senate is now looking for a way to pass the bill on how to control the internet.

Comparison

a) China continues to be one of the world’s most advanced in Internet Filtering. They started with filtering chat forums and websites but now, they are on to filtering blogs and video exchange sites.
China closes down any sites that express themselves too freely online

b) The Internet in Singapore is has no political discussion and these only occur on websites and discussion forums run from outside the country. They even have the ISP’s under control. Employers are legally allowed to monitor the e-mail of their workers, who have no means of appeal if they are sacked as a result of an intercepted message.

c) In Myanmar internet usage is closely monitored by the military. The term “closely” here is underrated. There are only 25,000 internet users although poverty is partly to blame for. E-mail is strictly filtered by the posts and telecommunications authority MPT and military intelligence, reportedly with a Dans Guardian content filter.

Compared to these countries, Internet Censorship in the Philippines is nothing. I think that the censorship in the said countries are violations of their freedom of expressions. We should be happy that this is not how controlling our government is, at least for now. To prevent this from happening, we should respect the internet and its benefits by not using it for illegal purposes such as pornography and child trafficking.

Internet Censorship

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship. Censorship is the moral or legislative process by which society agrees to limit what an individual can do, say, think, or see. Recent attempts to regulate,censor, what is viewed on the Internet have polarized the general population. Unfortunately, beyond the anecdotal, the characteristics of those who support Internet censorship are unknown.

Laws of the Philippines about Internet censorship

The Internet censorship in the Philippines is growing and people watch this more and more and even children watch it too. And if many people watch censored films, they woul d produce more and more of this and in many different kinds of censored films. The government is planning to block unnecessary sites in the Internet and even the bad sites about the government. The bill they are going to put up on this is very big and they can just use this project for other things. The Internet censorship can also be prevented at home. And we can be knowledge by our parents to this. And we can also install software that can be blocked by this internet sites.

Internet censorship in the Philippines

While researching censorship within the Philippines I came across two letters written to regulating bodies within the Asian Nations. I am sure there are countless other correspondences sent on this issue. The first is a letter written a few years ago by several members of various committees against censorship within the Philippines. The second letter was very similar, written to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) a year later by the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (CCPJ), the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and other freedom of speech organizations.
The letter reminds member nations that content-based restrictions of online communications violates internationally guaranteed rights of free expression. Likewise, the letter addresses the idea of conserving cultural values by stating that censorship does not ensure the respect of cultural norms or values.

Comparison of the Philippines in:

China- The internet in China is very protected and the sites are all very useful and they block all the pornography sites. Chinese government also block the websites that tell about there culture. As well as numerous others, has no information that might be deemed offensive to the Chinese government. Compared to the Philippines censored sites are not blocked and even children can see this things.

The Philippine govenrment should really work on the internet blocking for censored films on the internet.

Singapore- The Government of Singapore argues that censorship of violence and sexual themes is necessary as the Singaporean populace is deeply conservative, and censorship of political, racial and religious content is necessary to avoid upsetting the balance of Singapore’s delicate multi-racial society. In the Philippines the censorship is not conrolled and has been allowed ever since so now they are having a hard time to stop it. But the our government is trying to make it stop.

Myanmar- the military government restricts Internet access through software-based censorship, including software provided by U.S. company Fortinet. This software limits the material citizens can access on-line, especially email service providers and pornographic websites. The government also charges high prices to connect to the internet, and then charges on a per-hour basis once connected. Many native Burmans do not have the money to pay for this.

Internet Censorship

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Conversely, attempts by one government to prevent its citizens from seeing certain material can have the effect of restricting foreigners, because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world, if they host objectionable material.

Senate Bill 1375: Anti-Computer Pornography Act
“Computer Pornography Act,” seeks to protect minors from indecent and immoral materials transmitted through electronic mail and other means of computer technology by penalizing violators of such acts.

In Reality
In reality, there is no Internet Censorship, anybody from any part of the Philippines can view pornographic material. All they need is a computer and an internet connection and there all set. Even if there are laws abiding pornographic material, they are not strictly implemented therefore making it useless.

China

In September 1996, China reportedly banned access to an estimated 100 Web sites by using a filtering system to prevent delivery of offending information. The banned sites included Western news outlets, Taiwanese commentary sites, anti-China dissident sites and sexually explicit sites.

Since 1996, the Chinese government has enacted a number of highly restrictive laws prohibiting publishing political commentary the government considers undesirable and so on, and there have been continuing reports of various foreign media and human rights Web sites being blocked.

On 18 January 2002, Associated Press reported that:
“China has issued its most intrusive Internet controls to date, ordering service providers to screen private e-mail for political content and holding them responsible for subversive postings on their Web sites. …
Under the new rules, general portal sites must install security programs to screen and copy all e-mail messages sent or received by users. Those containing ’sensitive materials’ must be turned over to authorities. Providers are also responsible for erasing all prohibited content posted on their Web sites, including online chatrooms and bulletin boards.The new rules include a long list of banned content prohibiting writings that reveal state secrets, hurt China’s reputation or advocate the overthrow of communism, ethnic separatism or ‘evil cults.’
Singapore

Internet services provided by the three major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are subject to regulation by the Media Development Authority (MDA) to block websites containing material that may be a threat to public security, national defence, racial and religious harmony and public morality, and Police are given broad powers to intercept messages online. ISP-level blocks are, however, used sparingly with only some high-profile token sites like Playboy blocked. The Ministry of Education, Singapore blocks access to pornographic and similar objectionable Internet sites on its proxy servers. In 2005, MDA banned a gay website and fined another website following complaints that the sites contained offensive content. The banned website is said to have promoted promiscuous sexual behaviour and recruited underage boys for sex and nude photography.
Myanmar
Censorship in Myanmar (formerly Burma) refers to government policies in controlling and regulating certain information, particularly on religious, ethnic, political, and moral grounds. Freedom of speech and the press are not guaranteed by law, and every publication (including newspaper articles, cartoons, advertisements, and illustrations) are censored by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division of the Ministry of Information. In 2006, Myanmar ranked 164th of 168 nations in the 2006 Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index. Many colonial-era laws regulating the press and information continue to be used.

1) What is Internet Censorship?

Internet Censorship is the control of the publishing or accessing of information in the internet. It is also similar to offline censorship. The censoring of things in the internet is mostly done by the government. Information and websites today which are commonly targeted:

• Pornographic, Pedophile-related, and other morally objectionable websites — particularly in religious countries and in institutional settings such as schools.
• MySpace — particularly in the Middle East.
• Wikipedia — particularly in mainland China.
• Political blogs and websites.
• YouTube
• Nazi and similar websites — particularly in France and Germany.
• Religious websites.
• Google - particularly in mainland China and Cuba.
• Censorship-circumvention websites.

There is are two main organizations which help the censoring of things in a country: Reporters without Borders (RSF) maintains an internet enemy list while the OpenNet Initiative(ONI) categorizes some nations as practicing extreme levels of Internet censorship.2) Are there laws in the Phil. that can be considered censorship of the internet?

Yes, there is a bill in our country that is the Senate Bill 1375, whom the author is Loren Legarda. The bill proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut. The bill provides that it would be illegal for any remote computer facility operator, electronic service provider or electronic bulletin board service provider to knowingly transmit, offer or attempt to send any communication that contains indecent material, to a person under 18 years of age. It would also be unlawful for them “to allow access to transmit indecent material to a minor”. Under the bill, peddlers of online porn and other “indecent materials” would be punished with up to six years in prison or a fine of as much as P500,000, or both. This seeks to protect the people, mostly the young from indecent or immoral plays, scenes, acts, or shows, whether live or in film. These include materials that glorify criminals or condone crimes; serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market of violence, lust or pornography; offend any race or religion; tend to abet traffic in and use of illicit drugs; and are contrary to law, public order, morals, good customs, established policies, lawful order, decrees and edicts.

3) In reality, is there internet censorship in the Phil.?

Yes, because there are many information that are banned here. One example is the taking down of the website boybastos.com. Senator Loren Legarda ordered the authorities to stop boybastos.com and arrested the owner of the website who is Mark Verzo. The senator urged the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and the National Bureau of Investigation to find ways to shut off boybastos.com, which claims on its site to be “the premiere bastos portal of the Philippines”. The IACAT is the agency tasked to enforce the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and other laws against the prostitution, white slavery and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Some people are suggesting to make a giant firewall that may be named “Banaue Rice Firewall” to filter out incoming web traffic.

However there is a slight problem because instead of silently asking authorities to investigate the website, Sen. Legarda opted to gain publicity mileage by going directly to the media, thereby unwittingly becoming the website’s No. 1 promoter. “Our traffic/number of website visitors has skyrocketed thanks to the free publicity from the Senator, GMA News and other radio stations,” said the website yesterday.

4) Compare the Phil. situation w/ those of:

a. China

Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies, and organizations.

The censorship of china is more strict or effective than of our country. They have internet police which is estimated 30,000 or more. Critical information appearing on internet forums, bulletin boards, blogs, vlogs or any major portals such as Sohu and Sina are usually erased within minutes.

b. Singapore

Singapore is in ONI’s nominal category and is not on RSF’s internet enemy list. In Singapore, three people were arrested and charged with sedition for posting racist comments on the Internet, of which two have been sentenced to imprisonment.

I think we have that same strictness more or less. They have freedom rights to speak, but if the information is very scandalous then the government has to stop the owner.

c. Myanmar

Burma (also known as Myanmar) is in ONI’s pervasive category and on RSF’s internet enemy list. Burma has banned the websites of political opposition groups, sites relating to human rights, and organizations promoting democracy in Burma. During the 2007 anti-government protests, Burma completely shut down all internet links from its country.

This country’s internet censorship is very extreme that there is no more freedom to speak. They disallow any information that are against their government. I guess that this is too much for the Phil’s. censorship and the government will not allow this to happen.