On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Mark Neely <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[...] > The particularly insidious thing about digital censorship is the fact that > there ceases to be a human who can be held responsible. When the police > raided the gallery, the Commissioner was very quickly put under the > spotlight to explain why and on what basis the artworks were seized. There > was a human (physical) event, ordered by a real person, done in a manner > that created witnesses, which led to a story (a narrative) that the average > citizen could understand and form their own opinion of. > > Contrast that to digital censorship, where there is very often not a > specific human act involved, and therefore no individual or authority figure > who can be held to account. And the very nature of digital censorship - > algorithms, blacklists, IP addresses etc. - makes it very difficult for the > average citizen to understand what really is happening and what is at stake. > > The best thing anyone can do is change the narrative - give the story a more > human feel, with human vulnerabilities, human consequences, that everyone > can relate to. This is so true! The slippery slope is where both the victim and the perpetrator are 'anonymous'. Notice that even in the art story, the Commissioner was known by name and phone number; if artwork had been seized by The Police and brought to a Secure Location, it would have been quite a different story. In the eyes the public, the art would have just disappeared, and they would have to complain with Kevin Rudd, who would then probably claim he had nothing to do with it. The facts seem to be that the list of blocked sites will be secret, it will be maintained by an 'anonymous' organization (ACMA) and presumably the individual people who report sites are also anonymous. If this does not remind anyone of the KGB, then they never went to school. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil Cheers, Sjors --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Silicon Beach Australia" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
