Ever since I began this blog, I have consistently made efforts to alert all of you who read its content to the dangers of taking the Internet for granted and to point out developments which threaten the open access it offers.Similarly, I have encouraged everyone to make themselves aware of laws and actions on a local regional or global level.
There are extreme views on many of these situations which sometimes can distract from the concrete facts of dangerous compromises.
In the article below, there are some really disturbing contentions. I do not agree with some of these but I do believe there is more than enough put forth to offer very compelling information. regardless, the fact remains that we all must be vigilant and active in helping the Internet fulfill its potential now and in the future!
Good Netiquette for all!
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The Plan to
Kill the Internet Uncovered
Jun 12, 2014
10 ways web freedom is being
butchered worldwide.
The Internet has emerged as the most empowering tool of
individual freedom since the Gutenberg’s press, affording billions of people
worldwide not only the tool of instant communication, but access to a wealth of
liberating information, freedom from the chains of received consensus, and the
opportunity to become their own media platform.
This represents an ever increasing threat to the status quo
of the elite, which is why the establishment is working feverishly to dismantle
the freedom granted by the world wide web in its current form.
1. The Death of Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently gave
the green light for large Internet Service Providers to create a two-tier
Internet system which would allow large corporations to buy up dedicated faster
bandwidth, ending net neutrality and potentially leaving smaller websites in
the dust.
If passed this will allow the “televization” of the
Internet, resulting in large companies forming monopolies and restricting
consumer choice.
“[S]maller companies that can’t afford to pay for faster
delivery would likely face additional obstacles against bigger rivals. And
consumers could see a trickle-down effect of higher prices as Web sites try to
pass along new costs of doing business with Internet service providers,”reports the Washington Post.
For almost a decade, we have warned of plans to create an ‘Internet 2′ under which the old
Internet would be left to crumble and die, eviscerating the world wide web as a
tool of free speech that allows independent voices to be heard amongst the
cacophony of corporate and statist propaganda.
2. Intelligence Agencies are
Manipulating the Internet With Deliberate Disinformation
Documents recently released by whistleblower Edward
Snowden confirm that western intelligence agencies are deliberately
flooding the web with disinformation in order to, “inject all sorts of false
material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets.”
These techniques are intended to “control, infiltrate,
manipulate, and warp online discourse,” which has the effect of, “compromising
the integrity of the internet itself,” according to journalist Glenn Greenwald.
3. Governments are Paying Trolls to
Sway Public Opinion
In 2010, Canada’s CTV News reported on how federal authorities were paying
companies to “correct misinformation” on web forums.
The Turkish, Israeli and Chinese governments along with a
host of others have also implemented similar programs, while the U.S. Air Force
hired data security firm HBGary to create large numbers of fake social media
profiles that could be used to spread propaganda while countering anti-U.S.
rhetoric online. Raw Story reported that the obvious function of the program
was to “manipulate public opinion on key information, such as news reports,”
thereby creating, “the illusion of consensus.”
4. Mainstream News Websites are
Killing Comment Sections
Although this remains a relatively rare phenomenon,
increasing numbers of mainstream news websites are killing or severely
restricting comment sections in order to drown out dissident voices that
challenge the prevailing status quo.
Studies confirm that article comment sections – for better or
worse – are heavily swaying public opinion. Popular Science recently announced
its decision to kill comment sections on their website in order to silence
global warming skeptics. BoingBoing.net is following a similar track. The New York
Times also recently indicated that it is scaling back comments and
removing them from some articles altogether.
The effort to kill comments is part of the establishment
media’s desperate effort to dictate reality and maintain a grip on
manufacturing consensus in the face of a burgeoning independent media and the
Internet as a vehicle of free speech in general.
5. The Obama Administration’s
“Cognitive Infiltration” of the Internet
In 2010, a White House program was revealed that centered around
infiltrating conspiracy groups in order to undermine them via postings on chat
rooms and social networks. Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, Obama’s
appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, spearheaded
this “cognitive infiltration” of the web and has been heralding its success
ever since.
Sunstein pointed out that simply having people in government
refute conspiracy
theories wouldn’t work because they are inherently untrustworthy,
making it necessary to, “Enlist nongovernmental officials in the effort to
rebut the theories.”
Sunstein suggested that “government agents (and their
allies) might enter chat rooms, online social
networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine
percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises,
causal logic or implications for political action.”
6. False Flag Cybersecurity Attacks
as a Pretext to Increase Web Regulation
While constantly repeating the necessity for restrictive
cybersecurity regulations to be applied to the Internet in the name of
preventing cyber attacks, the United States has itself been behind all the
recent major cyber attacks.
After Alex Jones pointed the finger at Washington and Tel
Aviv for being behind Stuxnet during a September 27, 2010 broadcast, the likes of CNN, the Economist
and others followed up by ridiculing the claim as a baseless conspiracy theory.
Months later in January 2011, the New York Times reported, “US and Israeli intelligence services
collaborated to develop a destructive computer worm to sabotage Iran’s efforts
to make a nuclear bomb,” acknowledging the “conspiracy theory” to be true.
As the Washington Post reported, the United States and Israel were
also responsible for jointly developing the Flame virus.
Stuxnet’s appearance was dovetailed by an aggressive PR campaign during which Joe Lieberman and others
called for the government to be allowed to, “disconnect parts of its Internet
in case of war,” just as China did. What Lieberman failed to mention is the
fact that China’s Internet censorship program was and continues to be based
around crushing dissent against the state and has nothing to do with
cybersecurity.
7. Fairness Doctrine for the
Internet
While working to end net neutrality, the Federal
Communications Commission is also serving to facilitate the implementation of
something akin to the Fairness Doctrine for the Internet.
According to Tim Cavanaugh, under a plan entitled
“Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs, “The airwaves regulator
would subject news producers in all media to invasive questioning about their
work and content,” a move which could lead to policing of political content on
the web.
Although the study was widely derided in the media and now
appears to have been derailed, the fact that the FCC is pursuing such programs
illustrates the feds’ contempt for free speech on the Internet.
8. Homeland Security’s Internet Kill
Switch
While fears of a government kill switch for the Internet
have been mooted for years, under Standard Operating Procedure 303 or SOP 303, the Department of
Homeland Security has given itself the power to oversee “the termination of
private wireless network connections, both within a localized area, such as a
tunnel or bridge, and within an entire metropolitan area,” in the event of a
declared emergency.
When privacy rights group the Electronic
Privacy Information Center attempted to obtain more information on
the plan last year, the DHS claimed that it could not locate any further
details regarding the program.
The White House also still claims that it retains Internet
kill switch powers under the law that created the Federal Communications
Commission in 1934. This law states that if a “state of public peril or
disaster or other national emergency” exists, the president may “authorize the
use or control of any…station or device.”
9. New Taxes and Regulations Set to
Stifle Communication & Sales on the Web
A blizzard of new taxes and regulations could herald
“Internet freedom’s expiration date,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal piece which points to efforts by lawmakers
to weaken the Internet Tax Freedom Act in order, “to punish all American
consumers with new taxes on communication.”
Lobbyists for giant retailers are leaning on Congress to
empower some 9,600 state and local governments with more authority over
e-commerce, including a potential e-mail tax which could dissuade millions of
Americans from communicating online.
10. SOPA, CISPA & The FBI’s
Internet Backdoor
Legislative assaults under the banner of SOPA and CISPA,
which were advanced in the name of stopping online copyright theft, yet were
soundly defeated when it emerged they were actually designed to impose
oppressive censorship and surveillance
on the Internet, will continue to be advanced by those who seek to
centralize power over the web into fewer and fewer hands at the top of the
pyramid.
In addition, the FBI’s attempt to amend the 1994 Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act in order to build backdoors into all Internet Service
Providers, email clients and social media sites, is another effort to chill
free speech by indoctrinating people with the notion that everything they do
online is being permanently watched and recorded, making them less likely to
express their freedoms due to fears of official oppression.
Endgame
The ultimate endgame for the bid to kill the Internet as we
know it undoubtedly revolves around a plan to create a universal Internet ID
system, recently introduced by the White House, which will eventually
be transformed into a de facto license to use the world wide web. This would
empower the state to strip anyone who misbehaves of the ‘privilege’ of using
the Internet and thereby institute government permission to access the web.
Only by aggressively opposing these onerous threats to the
freedom of the Internet can we hope to preserve the world wide web in its
current incarnation and continue to see informed and empowered people the world
over embrace it as the tool of individual liberation it has truly become.
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