Title:Who should be allowed to filter the Internet?Internet censorshipor filtering the Internet is a political and social issue that has been alivefor many years now. Attempting to answer the question of who should have theability to censor this platform poses many different questions itself. Who makesthe rules of what is or isn’t censored? Is it even possible to filter the Internet?How effective and worthwhile will filtering the Internet be? Throughout thisessay, these questions and the problems that can arise will be discussed andanalysed. When designed, the Internet had, and still has, the ability to findand recognise filters and divert ‘around’ them as it’s seen as a disruption tothe network (Gilmore, 2013). In saying this, it is still possible forparticular, and powerful, entities to apply censorship to the Internet, howeverthis can be somewhat problematic as what is considered dangerous content iscompletely individual and subjective. Tim Berners-Lee,the creator of the Internet, gave the general public access to the Internet inApril of 1991. Something that was of importance to Berners-Lee was theaccessibility the Internet posed to allow for information, such as academicresources and other types of information sharing, to be freely available toeverybody and anybody (Bryant, 2011). In our world today and the advancestechnology has made since the net’s introduction in 1991, the Internet allowsus to create our own individual platforms, websites, applications and artefactsand share them with others who may be in other countries and time zones as us. It is importantthat we define exactly what is meant by the term the Internet. Typically, theInternet is mistaken for the World Wide Web. The Internet, is theinfrastructure that connects networks together in order for communication. Itis a “…network of networks…” (Beal, 2016). On the other hand, the WorldWide Web is the model of accessing the information that is transmitted over theInternet. It is built on top of the Internets infrastructure, and utilisesbrowsers to access this information (Beal, 2016). By understandingthis difference, we can ask the question of how do you enforce censorship on anetwork of networks that is designed to circumvent any ‘damage’? Although, theInternet is not strong enough, nor was it intended to, reject allinterferences, it is a dispersed network that resists these interferences andbypass said blockages (Leiner et al, 2007). This is, ultimately, the reasoningbehind individual governments, corporations, and even school systems havingtheir own filters, rather than a universal filter for the entire net userpopulation. However, thesespecific filters and censors can have problematic aspects to them, as they canoften be over-censored/blocked or under-censored/blocked. Different governingbodies block different content, depending on things such as social constructsof that country, spin doctoring or propaganda, and graphic and inappropriatematerial. There are blocking technologies that those who impose censorship use,one of which includes ‘trigger words’, in which government bots will monitorsites and block them if they are deemed to have censored content. This can bechallenging and shows signs of over-blocking, as the United States includedwords such as ‘team’, ‘Mexico’ and ‘pig’ (Miller, 2012). This system has thepotential to shut down and censor hundreds of sites that are not malicious incontent and may be wrongfully taken off the World Wide Web. Similarly, ASIC(Australian Securities and Investments Commission) were found to havemistakenly blocked over 250,000 websites. This was due to ASIC incorrectlyblocking an IP address rather than the intention to ban a single domain name (Lawrence,2013). These technologies that are utilised to assist in the blocking andcensoring of technologies have been said to be inaccurate and often flawed, inwhich Brown (2008, p8) has said “as a by-product block access to very largeamounts legitimate material”. China is renownedfor it’s extensive censorship of the Internet- which has been dubbed as the‘Great Wall of China’ by people all over the world.  The Chinese government has compiled intricateweb regulations for Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Internet ContentProviders (ICP) to abide by. By having these rules in place, the data that hasthe ability to be accessed by Chinese Internet users is heavily managed andcontrolled (Villeneuve, 2006). A large reason behind a lot of the blocking thatthe Chinese government enforces is to block political debate (Brown, 2008, p1)and to minimize the potential for defeating the government system (Villeneuve,2006). However, this excessive need that almost leans towards propagandapromoting the Chinese government, can be somewhat deterring to someone lookingin from the outside. This unrealistic amount of content restriction sets theexample for other Western cultures (e.g United States, Australia, UnitedKingdom), and therefore citizens of these countries are democratically againstcensorship of the Internet. Likewise, the Australian government value highlythe public opinion of its citizens, therefore the implementation of filteringand blocking of the Internet poses an imposition of a hierarchy for those whoimplement it (e.g ISP’s), meaning the accountability is away from thegovernment (Bambuer, 2008, p26) This causes vagueness and unrest from thepublic, as it’s assumable that censorship comes from government, however thisis not always the case. An issue thatarises from filtering the Internet come back to the idea of diverting aroundsaid blocks. However, in this case, it is from the perspective of the userrather than the network itself. There is a multitude of different ways thatusers can access and even distribute ‘blocked’ information through thesecensors. Ding, Yang, Chen and Guo (2011) conducted an experiment on thedifferent methods and systems that were speculated to bypass and accesscensored content during their time in China. Their results found that using a‘single proxy’ or a ‘proxy pool’ was the most effective in breaking through thefilters.Likewise, it is amatter of assessing whether or not it is important to focus on theaccessibility of dangerous content, or whether it should be beaten at the coreand those who are producing and distributing the content should have a heaviertarget on them before it even has the ability to reach the Internet. It isimportant to acknowledge that there are genuine reasons to filter the Internet,such as legal acts and policies, however the less legitimate (such as politicalagenda in China) result in the filtering becoming inaccurate and controlling. Thestructure of the Internet is majority of the reason that filtering isproblematic. Anyone has the ability to apply and act in place of the governingbody that applies thee filter, and on the other hand this same freedom the Internetprovides us allows anyone to have the ability to bypass this filter. The issue thatneeds to be addressed with regards to filtering is to understand eachindividual ‘need’ for a filter and find a more constructive and specific answerto their problem. Filtering is a simplistic outlook that is not effective andcan be easily overridden. Educational opportunities lie with each specificperson who accesses the Internet- understanding and educating users on what isright and wrong in the web universe will, in time, lessen the need for andamount of filters and blockages that appear on the net. As mentionedpreviously, there will always be a legality when it comes to filtering, howeverthe opportunity and issue lies within targeting and minimizing the amount ofdamaging content that gets produced in the first place. ReferencesBeal, V. (2016). The Differences Between the Internet and the Web. Webopedia.com. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/Web_vs_Internet.aspBrown, I. (2008). Internet censorship: Be careful what you ask for. In S. Kirca & L. Hanson (Eds.), Freedom and Prejudice: Approaches to Media and Culture. Istanbul: Bahcesehir University Press. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1026597Bryant, M. (2011). 20 years ago today, the World Wide Web was born. The Next Web. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/06/20-years-ago-today-the-world-wide-web-opened-to-the-public/#.tnw_8OMEQFj5Ding, F., Yang, Z., Chen, X., & Guo, J. (2011). Effective Methods to Avoid the Internet Censorship. 2011 Fourth International Symposium On Parallel Architectures, Algorithms And Programming. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/paap.2011.54Gilmore, J. (2013). John Gilmore’s home page. Toad.com. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from http://www.toad.com/gnu/Lawrence, J. (2013). ASIC admits to blocking another 250,000 sites. Efa.org.au. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from https://www.efa.org.au/2013/06/05/asic-blocked-250000-sites/Leiner, B., Cerf, V., Clark, D., Kahn, R., Kleinrock, L., & Lynch, D. et al. (1997). A Brief History of the Internet. Isoc.org. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from http://www.isoc.org/oti/printversions/0797prleiner.htmlMiller, D. (2012). Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don’t want the government spying on you (and they include ‘pork’, ‘cloud’ and ‘Mexico’). Mail Online. Retrieved 3 September 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-words-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.htmlVilleneuve, N. (2006). The filtering matrix: Integrated mechanisms of information control and the demarcation of borders in cyberspace. First Monday, 11(1).Get Help With Your AssignmentIf you need assistance with writing your assignment, our professional assignment writing service is here to help!Find out more