What would YOU do if the internet is censored?

the internet....one of the greatest or worse (depending on your point of view) things to happen in global communication since the telegraph...

about 89% of the earths population has used a computer to communicate in one way or another..wether its forums such as this, or other forms... i.e AOL, YAHOO, MSN, SKYPE, FACEBOOK, etc....

your grandmother uses the internet, your brother/sister/mother/cousin/friends/teachers/judges you get the point.

i have family members in another country, and every time i send them an email, it usually takes them roughly 2-3 days just to receive it..why? because that country's government has a special unit that strictly focuses on reading emails that are sent out, to "detect" certain conversations or information being passed on that would "Jeopardize " that countrys "national security" so to speak. so every time i write an email to my family i have to watch what i say, or i could potentially get one of them in trouble or even arrested for "treason".

what i described above is a small sample...just the tip of the iceberg of what would happen with internet free speech censorship..just the tip. we all experience censorship while online in one way or another, there are certain "ethics" and code of conduct placements to make sure people dont offend each other, or violate others rights in anyway. and dont doubt for a minute that certain things that you type online can raise "red" flags..however unless you are being observed for being a potential terror threat, most of us dont have to worry about having a fully geared 6ft tall swat member kicking in our front doors anytime...YET

so ATS...what would you do?...what would you do the moment it takes you 3 days for a freind or relative to recieve an email, because its being inspected by the c.i.a or the fbi?....what would you do the moment you accidentally become a terrorist for typing in a certain key word? what would you do when we no longer can write a post like this and share your thoughts?

what would YOU..an average 9-5 law abiding citizen do, when the worlds greatest form of communication is blacked out, and you are cut off from the rest of the world

what would you do?

It's already happening in Australia mate.

Usually, one email doesn't cut it, the intelligence agencies would most probably have to confirm it. So for example if you were to write something that compromises national security, you would go onto "the list" and be monitered, then if you were to continue emailing people with 'classified detail' then i guess you could be deemed as a terrorist.

Don't forget though, if you are on the list, most probably they are also listening if you get what i mean.

I would get riled up, and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone. The amount of people "online" is far too great for large changes to go by unnoticed. If its change, and negative change at that, they're gonna have a lot of pissed off people that have been pissed off for far too long.

I could see SOPA being enacted and brutally enforced as the tipping point. The day some of the people stand up and say "we've had it!" God knows corrupt politicians wont make us do it, taking away our entertainment and maybe we just might?

Originally posted by AaronWilson
, taking away our entertainment and maybe we just might?

im sorry, but this statement made me laugh a little....because its so true

reply to post by AaronWilson


it ill gonna be whole new level of nerdraaaaaaage

The Internet is censored. It's just censored on different levels, just usually not on a direct governmental level. Even this site is censored. You get used to it, and behave yourself. You conform to the Terms and Conditions, or you get booted off.

Just like that.

The internet is a military tool.

It has never been free, it always monitored.

Not we are in the final stages of monetizing the internet.

No big.

Sopa is a perfect example of people who dont understand technology trying to regulate it...

There are always ways around it, and all they are doing is creating a more savy internet user, once people get fed up with the censorship they will discover ways around it.

It will come from the college campus again and spread out to the rest of us.

Tor sites are example of this.

The worst that will happen is the internet will return to the untamed mass it was before everyone was using it, IRC chats BBS and so on hosted on .onion sites and other proxys will pop up like wild fire.

Old men trying to regulate things that are far above their heads.

So I would send email with GPG encryption, use proxy servers and such, and continue doing what I normally do, thats what Id do.

I wouldn't worry about it.

SOPA can't bring the Internet to a halt. It can only impede the flow of traffic for a limited period.

The US government can only impose limited control something which is little more than a bunch of agreed upon protocols for communication.

Just say......Worst case scenario.....The Internet is brought to a complete halt and no traffic can get through. I would give it less than 24 hours before people with the technological know-how, make their down to the local Wi-Fi hotspot and reconfigure the router to route between local wireless routers. A simple worm could then be executed to spread through the wireless system with the sole purpose of reconfiguring everyone's home networks to act as a new Internet. Within 48 hours, the Wi-Fi hotspots will begin linking together and after roughly a week, countries will start linking together.

Skynet is online......Only it won't be the machines that will rebel.....It will be the general public.

In all seriousness, I doubt it will ever come to the above scenario. Governments know that they have limited control online. As stated in many threads on the subject of SOPA, there just isn't enough money nor manpower to police the Internet in its entirety. It is cheaper and simpler to assemble crack teams of uber geeks and target certain undesirables directly.

There will probably be those that strike the data centers that are the source of communications limits. Also, the hackers will be on "our side" instead of making the internet a pain to deal with their DOS and malware attacks. They will be the new heros of the people. TPTB better rethink making billions of people in the world hunt them down, and their families. There's a lot of serious nut-cases out here.

Well, since they are recording all cell phone calls and emails now anyway ... and the post office opens and reads all our mail (though I suspect it just because she's a snoopy gossiper and not under government orders to do this) ... I don't think much would change other than it taking snail mail time to send an email.