Here in the US we take our right of free speech for granted and rightly so. Howe

Question

Here in the US we take our right of free speech for granted and rightly so. However, in many places in the world, speech is anything but free. Using the article "China's Scary Lesson to the World: Censorship Works: as a guide, do Internet research on two or three countries that censor Internet speech. Find examples of what types of speech people were posting that put them on their governments’ radar and what the consequences are. Analyze and discuss how the many-to-many connections of the internet can allow dissident speech to be heard around the world regardless of the restrictions. You must use three sources; cite your source, and NO WIKI anything. The post must be at least 100 words.

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Explanation / Answer

Internet censorship is not a myth, it exists in many countries. In the US, we take Internet freedom for granted but everyone in the world doesn't enjoy the same freedom. There are countries like India, Nigeria, Mexico where the Internet is partly free and then there are countries like China where the Internet is far from it. Countries that censor the Internet are:

1) China
China has always been the leader when it comes to Internet censorship. The country has been infamous for banning websites like Google, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Bloggers have been arrested in China in past for 'spreading rumours' against the government. 8 of the 25 most trafficked sites have been blocked in China causing a lot of loss to these companies as China is one of the biggest markets for them.
Time and time again China has punished people for accessing 'illegal websites' and service providers for providing them. Chinese journalist Chang Ping's 3 siblings were abducted by Chinese officials as Chang had written an open letter to the Chinese President that was published on a website.

2) Russia
Russia is following the footsteps of China with Internet censorship. In 2017, Russia had blocked access to webpages that were protesting against the government. Vladimir Putin in 2012, passed a law that granted Russian authorities the power to block certain online content. LinkedIn has been blocked in Russia because it broke the rule by storing the Russian citizens' data outside the country.

In the world of open source where tons of technologies are available, it is really difficult to censor the Internet. Even in China, a large number of people use VPN(Virtual Private Network) that allows them the access to all the websites. Internet is much larger to be censored, let alone controlled. The availability of various social media platforms, mailing services, VPS, proxies, etc allows dissident speech to be heard around the world regardless of the restrictions.  

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