UK keeps global net censorship ticking over

Far from being a haven for civil liberties and free speech, it seems the web is now prey to increasing monitoring and restrictions, according to a global study into internet censorship released today.

And while countries with poor human rights records, such as Zimbabwe and Burma, are already well known for their internet censorship, the US and Western Europe don't escape criticism from the report for their growing fondness for monitoring the activities of web users.

The study, Silenced, launched at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, condemned governments' use of the events of 11 September to introduce measures that would previously have been unacceptable.

The report says: "There has been an acceleration of legal authority for snooping, from increased email monitoring to the retention of web logs and communications data. Simultaneously, governments have become more secretive about their own activities, reducing information that was previously available and refusing to adhere to policies on freedom of information."

One of the report's editors, Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said in a statement: "It is clear that democratic nations such as the US and the UK have failed to set an acceptable benchmark for free speech. Non-democratic regimes look to the West for technologies and techniques of repression."

The report highlights how non-democratic regimes are already using internet surveillance and censorship for political purposes but, without technology supplied by Western nations, wouldn't be able to achieve the same level of monitoring.

But it's not just global governments who will take an interest in censorship and surveillance in the future. The report says: "It is arguable that in the first decade of the 21st century, corporations will rival governments in threatening internet freedoms. Aggressive protection of corporate intellectual property has resulted in substantial legal action against users, and a corresponding deterioration in trust across the internet."

The report does list positive developments in the sphere of internet monitoring, including countries establishing privacy legislation, but warns against complacency: "Technological developments are being implemented to protect a free internet but the knowledge gap between radical innovators and restrictive institutions appears to be closing."

The report is available at www.privacyinternational.org/survey/censorship .