Reader Response Draft 1&2

Morozov (2015) claims in his article “who’s the true enemy of internet freedom – China, Russia, or the US” that US is the true enemy of internet freedom. Although China and Russia censor and control internet freedom by imposing more restrictions on US based company and storing their domestic user’s data, they only do so to protect internal technological sovereignty and minimise US influence. However, US government aims to monitor and collect data from US based companies regardless of location.

However, it might be too naïve to accuse US of being the “true enemy” of internet freedom and simply believing that China and Russia’s actions are justified. There might be other hidden agendas for the Chinese and Russian government behind their restriction over domestic internet freedom. The restriction on Chinese and Russian internet citizens are more severe than just collection of personal data. In addition, their freedom of speech and expressing their (political) opinions are largely restricted as well. All these policies adopted by the individual governments are equally damaging to internet freedom.

Both countries’ governments have previous track records of controlling media and freedom of speech in their respective counties. China has two major practices that control its citizens’ interaction on the internet (E.H, 2013): The Great Firewall, as it is called by domestic and overseas users, which limit access Chinese user’s access to external websites, and Golden Shield, an internal system to monitor Chinese citizen’s movements on the net. Both measures serve more than just protecting internal technological sovereignty.

Evidence indicates that information are being manipulated by the Chinese government before reaching its citizens. One perfect example will be the series of riots occurred in Tibet during the period 2008 to 2012, whereby information are made readily available earlier and more accurately overseas as compared to within the Great Firewall. Other measures that the Chinese government adopted includes banned word on search engines and strict censorship about political issues.

Russia, on the other hand, faced different criticism after imposing a package of sweeping new restrictions on internet and blogging. Users are forced to reveal their personal information and imposed stricter control over dissemination of information by set a more harsh punishment for companies and individuals (RAZUMOVSKAYA, 2014). Such restrictions might have negative repercussions on internet based industries and affect businesses that rely on online information in one way or another.

Russia government’s actions potentially decrease Russia’s value to non-Russian companies and affecting the competitiveness and connectivity of Russia as a whole in the global market. By doing so, not only the internet freedom, but other internet related benefit will be affected.

Morozov argued in his article that Russia’s action can be considered a domestic policy and it is not as “evil” as US’s actions. However, I will like to point out that the nature of the actions are almost identical and we cannot jump into conclusion purely by comparing the scale of the affected population.

The line between internet freedom and causing chaos online is becoming blurred, it is necessary for the governments to regulate and monitor the internet to keep our cyberspace safe, but excessive control will definitely infringe user’s privacy. Perhaps, governments are still experimenting how best to balance both side to achieve optimum outcome.

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Reference:

E.H. (2013, April 21). How does China censor the internet? The Economists.

RAZUMOVSKAYA, O. (2014, April 29). Russian Parliament Approves New Law Restricting the Internet. Retrieved from The Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304163604579531460215555456