Censorship of the internet will fail...

I can not believe how many people are buying in to the idea that the internet can be censored/controlled.
The very idea of controlling and censoring the internet is something that a politician has come up with - not a network technician, software engineer or any other form of specialist.

Can parts/regions/countries be censored - absolutely... but in order to censor the internet you must first have the power of law in the land where the user you are attempting to censor resides. This is my attempt to explain simply to everyone why any wider attempt at control will fail.

Starting with how a network works:

Networks are a connection between 2 or more computers which allow them to communicate. The internet is a giant network which is comprised of millions of smaller networks, which are comprised of even smaller networks and so on...
Computers communicating with each other need to know what address they send their communication to in order to reach the other computer, this location is called an IP address.
IP addresses are hard for humans to remember so we use what is called a domain name instead. An example of a domain name is www.google.com.
In order for a domain name that a human enters to be converted in to a IP address it is sent to another computer that has a 'list' of what domain name belongs to what IP.

This is a very basic discription of how networking works, you can see how it could easily be compared to sending mail through the postal service (letters not packages) so this is what I am going to use to explain why censorship on an international scale will fail.

If TPTB wanted to censor the post, and people wanted to get around it:
Both sender and reciever could have a secret code language for messages -
- in computer terms this is called encryption and it constantly gets stronger and more complex

If the post office was shut down, you could use a different postal service or get a friend to pass the message on, just because the post office disappears does not mean the mailbox does.
- Any PC can become a domain controller, and pc's can easily pass messages along or deliver your communication for you

If the post office started inspecting the letters you would have massive a problem because of the volume of content to check, and you still have the problem of most countries not accepting this because of privacy laws.

For those geeker people out their saying windows itself could censor the internet, you are correct but why would microsoft as a company want to push people towards other operating systems?


Im really tired right now but I am sure I will think of some more scenario's if any of you want to challenge this in a technical or non technical way go ahead and I will do my best to further demonstrate why this is just a politicians pipe dream.

This goes way beyond censorship. This about who will ultimately gain control of the Internet. This notion was first played with by the UN back in 2005 and has been reintroduced by the UN a couple of weeks ago. They just needed the right POTUS to be in office. Bush didn't play back in 2005 and it would appear that the chips are falling into place with Obama at the helm.

Please read my last post in this thread on the issue.www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by byteshertz


Thanks for explaining this to us "Old Fogies" who are semi- computer illiterate.

Luckily the politicians are also computer illiterate. This means they pass the law and it does nothing by tick off a LOT of people. Of course that seems to be happening a lot lately.

Lots is going on, stay informed. One good site for information is 'Reporters San Frontieres' or 'Reporters without Boarders'. en.rsf.org...

It is similar to 'Doctors without Boarders' but for journalist. These doctors have a great reputation even when times are tough, I expect the journalist side will be right their with them. There are some good tips and resources there for keeping the channels of communication open and safe. There are plenty of others around if you look and do your home work.

I don't think you fully understand the concept behind the FCC regulating the net. By the FCC implementing "rules" that govern, in acted by the USG ( as well as other gov.t's as well ), they will be able to not only allow internet service providers to charge by the bandwidth, instead of a monthly flat rate, they'll be able to extort money for actual usage. Furthermore, by implementing rules, the USG now has the opportunity to select what websites that can be viewed. Preventing people like us, who come to ATS for knowledge, debates, and growth.
Also, the USG has always wanted to get their fingers in online purchasing. Most purchases done online are completed tax free. And I remember a while back, the big hoop la about that. The USG was up in arms that they didn't get their " share " of monies within the transaction.
This if passed in its entirety, will be the beginning of the end for the internet as we know it.

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
I don't think you fully understand the concept behind the FCC regulating the net. By the FCC implementing "rules" that govern, in acted by the USG ( as well as other gov.t's as well ), they will be able to not only allow internet service providers to charge by the bandwidth, instead of a monthly flat rate, they'll be able to extort money for actual usage. Furthermore, by implementing rules, the USG now has the opportunity to select what websites that can be viewed. Preventing people like us, who come to ATS for knowledge, debates, and growth.
Also, the USG has always wanted to get their fingers in online purchasing. Most purchases done online are completed tax free. And I remember a while back, the big hoop la about that. The USG was up in arms that they didn't get their " share " of monies within the transaction.
This if passed in its entirety, will be the beginning of the end for the internet as we know it.

The FCC does not have juristiction outside the USA, please explain how this will tame the WORLDS INTERNET when they do not posses power within the law of other countries. I agree with you this can happen and will be the end of the internet as the US knows it - but not the worlds internet.