Exporting Censorship

Xeni Jardin is 110% right: internet filters are antithetical to the America I live in (albeit, not in the America that Tom Monaghan and other members of the Christian Taliban wants to live in).

Exporting Censorship - New York Times AMERICAN technology firms are taking heat from the public and Congress for helping China's government police the Internet. But this controversy extends well beyond China and the so-called Internet Gang of Four: Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft. Just how many American companies are complicit hit home for me last month when dozens of readers of BoingBoing.net e-mailed us to say they had been suddenly denied access.

The cause was SmartFilter, a product from a Silicon Valley company, Secure Computing.
...
One of our most laudable national goals is the export of free speech and free information, yet American companies are selling censorship. While some advocates of technology rights have proposed consumer boycotts and Congressional action to pressure these firms into responsible conduct, a good first step would be adding filtering technologies to the United States Munitions List, an index of products for which exporters have to file papers with the State Department. While this won't end such sales, it will bring them to light and give the public and lawmakers a better basis on which to consider stronger steps. If American companies are already obligated to disclose the sale of bombs and guns to repressive regimes, why not censorware?

read the whole thing here

Tags: forbidden, /free_speech, /taliban