Comments on: WaPo on the Myanmar Internet Crackdown http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/09/wapo-on-the-myanmar-internet-crackdown/ From the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:34:17 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5.2 hourly 1 By: mathieu http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/09/wapo-on-the-myanmar-internet-crackdown/comment-page-1/#comment-32272 mathieu Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:15:01 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/09/wapo-on-the-myanmar-internet-crackdow#comment-32272 I did follow the Myanmar crackdown (and help research/write the ONI country report actually), and my first reaction was similar to this op-ed: Internet access - and online communication, as importantly - should be defended like all other human rights, and Internet governance negotiated accordingly. But I began thinking that describing an ideal outcome - an "international consensus" around minimum access to "the Web" (if there is still such a thing as One Web) - doesn't help much with respect to states that remove themselves from the international system. And while monitoring Internet filtering helps us know which governments are "up to no good", this function is quite irrelevant in times of gross human rights violations. As I asked in my blog, should we not explore counter-filtering too? I've done no research whatsoever on this, but I'm curious to know how difficult/costly it would be to provide Burmese people with wireless Internet or SMS networks via satellite, for instance. I did follow the Myanmar crackdown (and help research/write the ONI country report actually), and my first reaction was similar to this op-ed: Internet access – and online communication, as importantly – should be defended like all other human rights, and Internet governance negotiated accordingly.

But I began thinking that describing an ideal outcome – an “international consensus” around minimum access to “the Web” (if there is still such a thing as One Web) – doesn’t help much with respect to states that remove themselves from the international system. And while monitoring Internet filtering helps us know which governments are “up to no good”, this function is quite irrelevant in times of gross human rights violations.

As I asked in my blog, should we not explore counter-filtering too? I’ve done no research whatsoever on this, but I’m curious to know how difficult/costly it would be to provide Burmese people with wireless Internet or SMS networks via satellite, for instance.

]]> By: WaPo on the Myanmar Internet Crackdown http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/09/wapo-on-the-myanmar-internet-crackdown/comment-page-1/#comment-32101 WaPo on the Myanmar Internet Crackdown Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:40:21 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/09/wapo-on-the-myanmar-internet-crackdow#comment-32101 [...] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...] [...] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]

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