Just like every other time, we've been asked to take down political speech. It's alarming, not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect
Undisclosed Location, South America. (PRWEB) June 24, 2012
Google’s transparency report has served to show the internet community just exactly how intrusive and restrictive the governments of the world have become, even the governments of the world that are considered democratic, according to the lead man at VPNReviewz.com, Michael Maxstead. According to the report there has been a serious increase in government removal requests, court ordered removals, and private (copyright) removal requests.
According to their report in the US alone there were more than 6,350 requests for content and item removals, with the bulk of them being in the AdWords – Other category. This was a definite rise in the requests, but the upside of this figure shows that a diminished 42% of the requests were honored. According to Maxstead, “It’s hard to determine if the lower compliance was due to the increase in requests, or just a lot more bogus requests.” The previous 6 month report showed only 849 requests, of which 63% were honored.
The increase in removal requests wasn’t limited to the US either. According to UsenetReviewz.com, the British courts ordering the removal of a popular Usenet search index started a trend in censorship among the countries that are considered democratically free. According to them the order set a precedence that has been taken up by many other governments. About this Maxstead claimed, “Before the order was even implemented there were methods of circumvention to render the order ineffective.”
In the Google blog their senior policy analyst, Dorothy Chou, said that, “This is the fifth data set that we've released. Just like every other time, we've been asked to take down political speech. It's alarming, not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect – western democracies not typically associated with censorship." The VPNReviewz.com CEO agrees with this assessment “wholeheartedly.”
Maxsteads’ website, VPNReviewz.com advocates the use of Virtual Private Networking, (VPN,) for internet safety and as additional security insurance, but according to him, “VPN’s are difficult to decrypt, much less censor, as real time monitoring and surveillance is rendered ineffective in most every case.” He also says that while the governments do have the technologies required to decrypt the coded tunneling protocols, real time monitoring is “virtually impossible.” It is already a well known fact that VPN’s can cloak almost any internet communication due to the turmoil in the Mid-East in the last few years.
Mr. Maxstead also maintains that while there are those few that do engage in illegal downloads, even more do not. He also states that, with the present atmosphere where the internet is concerned that, “The people that are engaged in illegal activity already have VPN’s on guard to cloak their activities.” And many more are moving to using them just to maintain their privacy, “I mean, no one wants everyone knowing their emails, IM’s, an any other activities.” He said.
About VPNReviewz.com
Michael Maxstead specializes in testing, analyzing, and reviewing the top VPN providers. Publishing from an undisclosed location somewhere in South America he rates online VPN service providers and manages the website VPNReviewz.com.
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