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Internet kill switch – Urgent global action needed as “internet as we know it” comes under very real threat

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United Nations body, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has asked for the kill switch to the internet, leaving cyberspace subject to political control and constant monitoring. Civil rights groups, big communications corporations including Google and international labour unions are to meet in London today to launch a global campaign and petition titled Stop the Net Grab. Two influential Australians are at the centre of the move – Dr Paul Twomey and Sharran Burrow. They will be joined to launch the campaign by Vinton Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet and now chief Google evangelist.

An article published today, November 12, 2012 in Australian Couriermail states:  A draft of the proposal, formulated in secret and only recently posted on the ITU website for public perusal, reveal that if accepted, the changes would allow government restriction or blocking of information disseminated via the internet and create a global regime of monitoring internet communications – including the demand that those who send and receive information identify themselves. It would also allow governments to shut down the internet if there is the belief that it may interfere in the internal affairs of other states or that information of a sensitive nature might be shared.

Though this article originated from Australia, the threat to rest of the world is the same… Telecommunications ministers from 193 countries will meet behind closed doors in Dubai next month to discuss ITU’s proposal.

The move has sparked a ferocious, under-the-radar diplomatic war between a powerful bloc of nations, led by China and Russia, who want to exert greater controls on the net and western democracies determined to preserve the free-wheeling, open architecture of the World Wide Web.

The battle for control has also seen a cartel of telco corporations join forces to support amended pricing regulations  changes which critics warn will pave the way for significant increases in the cost of day-to-day internet use, including email and social media.

“Unless we act now, our right to freely communicate and share information could change forever. A group of big telecommunications corporations have joined with countries including China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia that already impose heavy restriction on internet freedoms,” said Ms Burrow, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. “So far, the proposal has flown under the radar but its implications are extremely serious. Governments and big companies may end up with the right not only to restrict the internet and monitor everything you do online but to charge users for services such as email and Skype.”

Read more… www.couriermail.com.au

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8 Comments

  1. So then this will mean that the internet will become just like the English-speaking newspapers and television- LIES, MANIPULATION, and CENSORSHIP of anything pertinent. *shakes my head* If this does end up passing, “They” will have completely won the INFOWARS, and it should be a wake up call to all who THINK they are “free”. Who knows- America is gearing up for a new civil war. (anyone who cannot see this is blind- FEMA camps… DHS buying 1.4 billion rounds of ammo… DHS purchasing HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of so-called “grave-liners”, capable of holding 3-4 bodies EACH… Underground cities and tunnels being built all across the U.S. (Denver International Airport)… “They” are going to do SOMETHING that will trigger a mass revolt. Maybe this is part of their plan?

  2. If the people we vote into office tell us we can no longer communicate among ourselves, this country will lose it’s reason to exist. Our ancestors fled Europe to escape this kind of censorship. We may have to go back to printing pamphlets in secret. That’ll be a step of about four hundred years backward.

  3. The real hard core right don’t give a crap about you. They are ready to just separate themselves. The demons that you need to fear are your socialist masters. They like controlling you while farming your output.

  4. Can you imagine the censorship!
    Any article that doesn’t follow what big bruv wants will be stopped, no more discussion on things like climate change, conspiracy theories, geo engineering etc etc.
    A socialist dream come true, total control over what we write and think. One more step towards a grand socialist nanny state world government.

  5. My sensing is telling me, if they can’t accomplish censorship so-called lawfully and above the table, they will inevitably accomplish it in some other way, and this other way may prove more damaging and permanent; global viruses, HAARP tech, or an “act of god”? Moneyed ultra conservatives whose religious and philosophical sensibilities are far right of Genghis Khan are not averse, and feel quite honored and privileged, to be the damning hands of god. It will be an honor and privilege for me, when their armageddonish destiny they so desire actually comes to be, to see them realize they are just another lily in the field of this angry god. Or just another sparrow falling falling falling…

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