Google: From advocate to adversary?
Aug 24, 2010 Business, Digital Divide, Government, Net Neutrality
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The ongoing international debate over net neutrality has been thrown into the limelight once again. This time its news of an unlikely partnership between Google, the once vocal advocates of net neutrality, and Verizon.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
News broke regarding a ‘deal’ between Google and Verizon which would see the two companies put together a proposal for the tackling of net neutrality in the US. At first glance the two titans appear to support net neutrality and agree with previous plans from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ensuring all providers are transparent about the management of their networks and prohibit discrimination against certain types of legal content.
“In providing broadband Internet access service, a provider would be prohibited from engaging in undue discrimination against any lawful Internet content, application, or service in a manner that causes meaningful harm to competition or to users. Prioritization of Internet traffic would be presumed inconsistent with the non-discrimination standard, but the presumption could be rebutted.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Business, Digital Divide, Government, Net Neutrality
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Loading ...Is this the beginning of the end for the Great Aussie Firewall?
Jun 29, 2010 Government, Net Neutrality, Regulation
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For several years now Stephen Conroy, Australia’s Communications Minister, has been waging war against the evils of the Internet with his proposed net filtering legislation aimed at forcing Australian ISPs to censor the web. As you may expect, he has come up against a significant amount of opposition from ISPs, freedom of speech advocates, the industry, politicians and the like.
Elsa Chen, General Manager
Possibly most damning of all is the latest report out of Australia which brands the proposed legislation as “politically toxic”. This is not good news for Mr Conroy as he plans to introduce this highly controversial Bill before the next General Election in October.
So what’s wrong with the Great Aussie Firewall?
The ‘Great Aussie Firewall’, as it has been nicknamed, was originally proposed and positioned as a method of tackling child pornography on the Internet and was expected to operate in a similar way to our own IWF watch list, with ISPs blocking access to potentially harmful or offensive sites. Nothing wrong with that you may argue. However, there are two significant differences between the Aussie Firewall and our own IWF list. Firstly, our IWF list is not mandatory or state run and secondly, the scope of the Australian filter is far more wide reaching. This is the real concern for many opposing the Bill. The Australian filter is based on the RC Content (Refused Classification) list which is compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Opponents to the proposed Bill state that only one third of the list is actually made up of child abuse content. The rest, according to the ACMA, includes bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act. However its opponents insist that the list extends beyond these. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Government, Net Neutrality, Regulation
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Poll:What do you think about Google’s withdrawal from China?
Apr 13, 2010 Net Neutrality, Polls, Regulation
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We recently published an article discussing Google’s withdrawal from China (Entanet Opinion: Google flees Great Firewall of China) and the impact this has on the Internet industry, Google and what it means for other countries currently implementing censorship policies. Now we would like to find out what you think about this issue and have published a new poll to do just that.
Tags: Net Neutrality, Polls, Regulation
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Google flees Great Firewall of China
Apr 6, 2010 Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
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Back in December 2009 Google and a number of other high profile companies were the target of several cyber attacks which were allegedly traced back to the Chinese government. In Google’s case the hackers appeared to be after the Gmail account details of a number of human rights advocates. We started to cover this story in January when Google announced that it was considering withdrawing its Google.cn operations following the attacks.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
- Entanet Opinion: Google finally stands up to China
On its company blog, Google stated “We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”
- Google Blog: A new approach to China
Tags: Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Update: Net neutrality – Is legislation necessary?
Mar 30, 2010 Digital Divide, Net Neutrality, Regulation
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According to the FCC the answer is yes!
Back in November 2009 we covered the FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) plans to introduce legislation to enforce net neutrality – the theory that all Internet users and traffic should be treated equally and without bias.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
- Entanet Opinion: Net neutrality – is legislation necessary?
The proposals had caused an uproar amongst ISPs in the US as they required network operators to be more transparent about the management of their networks and stopped them from blocking or slowing down certain types of legal traffic e.g. P2P. Obviously the ISPs were far from happy about this and argued that they had invested heavily in the development of their networks only to have their managerial power removed.
Tags: Digital Divide, Net Neutrality, Regulation
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