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+--- Thread: Should governments be able to block websites? (/thread-1250.html)
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Zach - 08-02-2011
There are legitimate uses for instructions like those. While I agree that people may do dangerous things with information like this, it does not mean that people should be prohibited from having knowledge. I read the Anarchists Cookbook cover to cover for fun, I do not think it would be right to deprive people of the right to knowledge or information that might one day be useful.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Dante - 08-02-2011
I don't think the governments should be able to do this. Specially not the American government, since freedom is such a big thing in America that it's really silly to see the government actively trying to limit that freedom.
To be honest, I don't even get what the point of blocking a website is other than censoring something that the government doesn't THINK the people should see. Maybe it's because it hurts the government's image or something silly but I think that's the kind of information that is most necessary of being free. People need to know just WHAT is going on, not being feed lies to protect the image of the government.
It doesn't even matter much if you block a website in this day and age. As soon as something goes online, there's a huge change of a million duplicates of it being made. If it's anything that seems like it's obviously, say, classified information, it would spread like wildfire and I doubt that any government would be able to control that, no matter how much censorship there is. Unless the censorship requires sites to be approved before they even go online or something stupid like that...
I just hate senseless censorship in general...
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - RichardGv - 08-02-2011
(08-02-2011, 02:05 PM)Zack Wrote: There are legitimate uses for instructions like those. While I agree that people may do dangerous things with information like this, it does not mean that people should be prohibited from having knowledge. I read the Anarchists Cookbook cover to cover for fun, I do not think it would be right to deprive people of the right to knowledge or information that might one day be useful.
Well, the book is severely destructive forever and ever, yet only might one day be useful, when United States comes to a state similar to Libya. :S Fortunately Steven Schragis decided to drop this book since 1991.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Zach - 08-02-2011
Exactly. If a country ever goes down the toilet, people will need access to information.
@Dante: You are talking about the Streisand effect. Censoring something only makes people want to access it more, it is one of those weird parts of human nature.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - yoshi - 08-03-2011
It's no longer democracy if the government starts so censor and block information and websites. A good example is China. I suppose North Korea doesn't even have internet, just some kind of intranet for high-rank citizens lol.
But sites containing highly illegal stuff like child prnography should be banned, that's probably the worst thing that exists in the web.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Zach - 08-03-2011
Banning sites with things like child pornography doesn't do anything to fix the child pornography problem. When you delete a site like that, it just encourages the people who upload that stuff to make another site. Governments should go after the physical people who commit crimes, not after the websites they create. Those should be a secondary priority.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Dante - 08-03-2011
(08-03-2011, 04:31 AM)Zack Wrote: Banning sites with things like child pornography doesn't do anything to fix the child pornography problem. When you delete a site like that, it just encourages the people who upload that stuff to make another site. Governments should go after the physical people who commit crimes, not after the websites they create. Those should be a secondary priority.
They should do both, obviously. Just deleting or blocking the site does nothing and just getting the sick bastard that made the site doesn't do much either.
Oh god, this has reminded me of an issue in another forum that some of my friends frequent. There was a pedophile and he managed to get pictures of some of the children that frequent the forum. There are a lot of kids in that forum, considering it's the forum for a webcomic based on Nintendo videogames... I know he got banned and they were going to get him in real life, they had already spoken to the authorities and stuff but I don't know if that worked out. I will check later...
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - gamingmaster42 - 08-04-2011
Censoring anything in my opinion is wrong. Certain libraries for example censor Harry Potter because it "advocates" wizardry and witchcraft. Clearly the concept of banning literature because it has magic in it is ludicrous. And as already mentioned censoring anything makes people want it more - it's just human nature. So if a government censored websites about a certain topic, people will just try to find more about it.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - Cecil15 - 08-07-2011
Well, I do think that the government might be useful to block harmful websites since they have authorities. But it should have a broad investigation and specific limitations. In that manner, they would really be sure whether to block the website or not and if it really harms the public.
RE: Should governments be able to block websites? - TayneC8 - 08-22-2011
No, I do not feel that governments should have control on what people view. However hard they try, the sites will keep buying new domains anyway. There's no stop to it. The government should just give up on it now, and downloading movies isn't really going to make a big movie star any less richer than they were before.