The splendiferous Doc Searls has an alarming article about an outfit called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium. Global Internet Freedom Consortium sell tools to break the Great Internet Wall of China. Cool. They also sell the private details of their clients who have purchased these tools to 'vetted' companies for 'personalised advertising'. Extremely un-cool... catastrophi...

Plans to force internet providers to block sites carrying pirated music and films 'threaten freedom of speech and the open internet', says internet and telecom companies

Plaid MEP Jill Evans has welcomed a decision by the European Parliament to support internet freedom. Ms Evans voted in favour of the proposals which state that a user's access to the internet cannot be restricted without a prior legal ruling. ... full story

David Cameron, prime minister, and Joe Biden, US vice president, took a strong line on freedom of speech on the internet in what appeared to be a challenge to China and Russia

These are all internet problems and [internet users] think someone should do something about it. Although many internet users think the government should keep out of the internet, I suggest to you that most ordinary people who just use the internet like they use the banking system or the trains think that the government should make sure it all works properly for them and that bad things get stoppe...

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has called for an unfettered internet and urged global condemnation of those who conduct cyber attacks, as China sought to contain tension with the US over the hacking and censorship of Google.

Some of the “kill switch” stuff sounds a bit overwrought, but it looks a like the Chinese view of the internet is on the point of prevailing. This from Rebecca MacKinnon's commentary on China's recent White Paper on internet governance:...

I have a confession to make. I don't know a great deal about electronic issues, especially how they relate to the law. Ask me about the electoral system used for the London Assembly and I could talk for ages, ask me about issues of electronic freedom, internet piracy, and such things, and I would struggle. But there is somewhere on the internet that I trust to provide me with the latest elect...

Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, points out the value of the internet to him . It does seem that the internet can be a key tool for dissidents in authoritarian countries like China. It enables far greater horizontal communication between people than would otherwise be possible. However, although technology can free us, it also can enable more monitoring and snooping of people. Computer technology ...

Internet service providers should be free to favour traffic from one content provider over another as long as they inform customers, the communications minister will say on Wednesday