Should governments be able to block websites?

[RichardGv]

I don't think they should be allowed to block anything. That seem to me as if it is an infringement on our rights to free speech. It doesn't matter what the website says, people have the right to say what they want, no matter who doesn't agree with it. Thats my personal opinion, though; call me extreme if you want.

Well, I have a extreme (and nasty) question: Do you think people be allowed to talk about how to murder you or your family members publicly on the Internet? :D

(Nah, I'm kinda kidding.)

True, but if it doesn't explicitly say how to fire it in the school (or even mention the possibility) I think it should be allowed.

There's barely any beneficial reasons for a normal person to create/use a bomb, unlike the case of handguns (which can used to... Shoot rabbits? Oh well, it doesn't sound like a particularly useful thing, not for me. :) ). Bombs are more inclined to be used for destructive purposes. (Do you still remember how the King of Brobdingnag stated about cannons in Gulliver's Travels?) Even if an average person, with insufficient knowledge, builds a bomb or plans to use a bomb for some honorable purposes (I cannot think of any), he is very likely unable to store it or use it safely, thus possibly leading to catastrophic results, for him, his family members, and his neighbors. Not to mention people with malicious purposes, people with psychological disorders but not staying in a hospital, or children with the dangerous combination of curiosity and irrationality. For the safety of the billions of humans living on the planet, I do not think making any instructions about building or using weapons of mass destruction public can be tolerated. Not in a normal democratic society, at least. (Surely, it might make sense to reveal such information to Libyans.)

I don't think that's extreme at all, in fact, I feel the same way.

It also makes sense to prevent extremist/terrorism content from appearing publicly on the Internet, such as, an extension tutorial for making bombs and fire it in front of a school building, since it's way beyond the extent of freedom and tolerance one deserves.

That's what I would call a grey area. It would be horrible for a website to instruct people to blow up schools, however, I think that if a person wished to blow up innocent children they would have done it already. Crazy people will do crazy things if they want to do crazy things, that's the way of the world...

The information about building destructive weapons and explosive materials is usually out of the scope of the knowledge of an average person. For a highly intelligent and aggressive anti-socialist, he would be able to find out a way to produce the explosive materials and blow the school up even if the information is not available publicly. But for the less aggressive anti-socialist, or the people who get piqued suddenly due to some events, a guide about making explosive materials or how/where to place the bomb most effectively could act as a direct encouragement. Also, if one already plans to carry out some terrorism acts, the information could lead him to choose more destructive forms. For example, after viewing how to produce a bomb, a person originally intended to shoot children in a school with a handgun could decide to blow the school building up directly instead.

So overall, the effect of such information is possibly turning an irritated person to a crazy one, and making crazy person do even more crazy things than what they originally intend.

(Actually, most "crazy" person are not dramatically different from the "normal" ones. Most of them are not born crazy, but may just have meet miserable events in their lives, or have some fatal characteristics that get stimulated all a sudden. Miserable people are always have a hateful part, and hateful people always have a miserable part.)