Zittrain, Jonathan, and John Palfrey. (2008)

Citation

Zittrain, Jonathan, and John Palfrey. (2008). Internet Filtering: The Politics and Mechanisms of Control. (Chapter 2). In Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, eds. Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain. Boston, MA, USA: MIT Press, 29–56. Retrieved from: https://opennet.net/node/206.

Purpose of article

To describe how governments around the world use censorship and online filtering as a means of political control.

Main Argument(s) and supporting evidence

The paper focuses on how countries around the world block or filter Internet content. Information that generally challenges the stability of entrenched political, religious, social and/or cultural norms is deemed undesirable by the state. Asserting control through filtering consists of erecting the reliable tactics of legal, technical, and procedural barriers within borders, and now entails using automation and intermediaries. Censorship and filtering, however, are not practiced rigorously and consistently across or within countries. Suppressing and controlling information on the Internet remains porous, and the process generates a reiterative “cat and mouse” game between the state and its citizens. Extensive suppression of information on the Internet creates the need for surveillance in society. Both democratic and non-democratic states contravene international human rights covenants in order to collect information on their citizens. As Internet technologies evolve so too will the state’s control methods as a means to keep up.

Method(s) (e.g., case studies, interviews, thought piece, survey

A collection of surveys and observations, accumulating empirical data since 2001.

Areas / Topics / Keywords

Online Censorship, Online Filtering, Government Surveillance, Decentralization, Privacy

Author(s)’ understanding/definitions of key concepts

Filtering content online is a form of censorship because it suppresses information. Censorship is a total ban on some type of information for the same purpose. Government surveillance is spying to collect information about individuals and groups, especially those who pose a threat to the state.

Theoretical frameworks followed by the author(s)

Decentralization. Online networks can give rise to social instability and threaten the state’s hegemony.

Novel ideas introduced by this article

Syndication, aggregation, and peer-to-peer technologies allow the Internet’s consumer/creator to circumvent state censors.

Pitfalls, blind spots, and weaknesses of this article

The article fails to mention cloud computing, WikiLeaks, or Edward Snowden because the book was published in 2008.

Potential Contribution to the scholarship of Social Studies of Library and Information and to the practice of Librarianship

Heated public debates regarding the content limitation of certain sites at the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) and the Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL) show that Internet content-control mechanisms not only affect the bulk of humanity in Eurasia and North Africa but also in places like Canada.

Page Author: Vivian McCollor