Is Technology Slowing Down Freedom of Speech?
January 1st 2007 14:24
Plenty of schools, libraries, among other institutions are wholly banned from editing Wikipedia, this comes from Wikipedia’s own system which blocks off users who continually break the Wikipedia TOS.
However there could be a problem, recently the entire nation of Qatar was banned from editing Wikipedia, not because the entire nation was vandalising Wiki articles but because a few where. Wikipedia could not distinguish between contributing members and non-contributing members because the entire nation of Qatar is represented by a single IP address.
Is it fair that because some kids messed around with Wikipedia’s articles that a whole nation should be blocked? The answer to that is apparent. But is it a loss to Wikipedia that the entire nation of Qatar cannot edit Wikipedia articles? Well obviously the impact on Wikipedia in that regard would be minimal if almost non-existent.
This does cause issues though, what if it gets out of hand? If it is technically feasible to block an entire country from accessing a feature on one site could the same fundamental principle be used to block the entire nation from accessing the internet?
While the technology doesn’t exist it technically is possible, perhaps people will one day censor the internet.
However there could be a problem, recently the entire nation of Qatar was banned from editing Wikipedia, not because the entire nation was vandalising Wiki articles but because a few where. Wikipedia could not distinguish between contributing members and non-contributing members because the entire nation of Qatar is represented by a single IP address.
Is it fair that because some kids messed around with Wikipedia’s articles that a whole nation should be blocked? The answer to that is apparent. But is it a loss to Wikipedia that the entire nation of Qatar cannot edit Wikipedia articles? Well obviously the impact on Wikipedia in that regard would be minimal if almost non-existent.
This does cause issues though, what if it gets out of hand? If it is technically feasible to block an entire country from accessing a feature on one site could the same fundamental principle be used to block the entire nation from accessing the internet?
While the technology doesn’t exist it technically is possible, perhaps people will one day censor the internet.
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